The fourth edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival, featuring more than 400 speakers, over 900 exhibitors, 41 international pavilions, and about 60,000 participants from 130 countries, offered a platform for companies, public agencies and regulators to announce their latest fintech initiatives.
India and Singapore deepened their economic cooperation across the board during the festival, launching an e-payment interface demo, the India Pavilion for startups from both nations and signing various Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
A pilot demo of the first international application of India's Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) United Payments Interface (UPI) began in Singapore on Wednesday with High Commissioner of India to Singapore Jawed Ashraf demonstrating the first live transaction at a merchant terminal at the festival.
Key speakers at the conference included Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements and Pavan Sukhdev, president of World Wildlife Fund International.
Startups and fintech firms from across the world interacted with thousands of people at during the festival. Here are some scenes from the event:
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@sgfintechfest
Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (3rd from right) at the Singapore Pavilion at the fintech festival. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@sgfintechfest
H.E. Jawed Ashraf, High Commissioner of India to Singapore demonstrating the QR-based payment system BHIM at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2019. Photo: Connected to India
The Indian delegation at the SFF Exhibition's India pavilion is one of the largest from any country, composed of 12 and 15 fintech companies sponsored by FICCI and Mumbai Fintech Hub respectively. Photo: Connected to India
Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat during his address at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019 touched upon developments in Artificial Intelligence and its applications in the sector. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@sgfintechfest
The fourth edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival featured more than 400 speakers, over 900 exhibitors, 41 international pavilions, and about 60,000 participants from 130 countries. Photo: Connected to India
Piyush Gupta, CEO, DBS (centre) on the floor of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019. Photo: Connected to India
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Deloitte and S&P Global Market Intelligence have collaborated to develop a prototype for an industry-wide FinTech Research Platform to help investors and financial institutions connect with FinTech start-ups that they can partner with or invest in. Photo: Connected to India.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Minister of Foreign Affairs (centre-right) and Sonali Verma, Head, Customer Experience and Innovation, Regional Bancassurance, Manulife Asia, (centre-left) share a laugh while discussing the company's health and wellness imperative at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019. Photo courtesy: Linkedin/Sonali Verma.
Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group, operating a booth at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019. Photo: Connected to India
The Application Programming Interface Exchange (APIX) booth at the festival. The banking technology platform was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Singapore in 2018. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@sgfintechfest
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