The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Australian Treasury have come together to sign the Australia-Singapore FinTech Bridge Agreement, which an MAS media release describes as a measure to strengthen cooperation between both countries’ FinTech ecosystems:
Building a FinTech Bridge
The agreement will see two industry regulators facilitating trade and investment in their respective sectors. These regulators will also develop ties among industry groups, policy officials and other regulators, with further plans to develop FinTech companies in each other’s markets to create new opportunities and minimise entry barriers.
The Bridge Agreement is likely to explore joint innovation projects in other emerging areas including blockchain, sustainable finance, data portability, and cross-border data connectivity. However, the first step for the partnership is to develop a framework for bilateral collaboration and joint projects.
Australian CBDC Partnerships
The agreement comes less than a month after the central banks of Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore, and the Bank for International settlements (BIS) announced plans to explore multi-CBDC platforms.
On March 25, BIS released a report announcing the results of two multi-CBDC platforms it had been working on, finding that while these platforms were technically viable, they faced governance, coordination, and jurisdictional challenges. Opportunities are available, although more exploration into the application of these platforms is required.
To learn more about CBDCs, Crypto News Australia has put together a guide on CBDCs and stablecoins.