Orient - The Official Magazine of the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore - Issue 66 May 2018 - Page 14
Realising the ASEAN Vision with TheCityUK By Ashley Jones - Chairperson, Financial & FinTech Business Group The 27th of March marked the second meeting of Financial Services and Fintech Business Group along with members from the financial services community in Singapore, with TheCityUK. For those who have not come across the organisation before TheCityUK is the industry-led body for UK based financial services and related professional services and committed to supporting the development of the sector. Sushil Saluja, Chairperson for the ASEAN Market Advisory Group with TheCityUK and Owen Jelf, the global lead for Capital Markets with Accenture introduced the latest paper from TheCityUK focussed on ASEAN Capital Markets. This is titled ‘Realising the ASEAN Vision’. Our group, comprising twenty British Chamber members, discussed the four key objectives covered by the paper: • Green finance which concentrates on areas such as encouraging global bond issuances and offering tax incentives for green financing. • Infrastructure financing: support identified here would include collaboration between public and private sectors through the aptly named public-private partnerships (PPP’s) and considering tax breaks for borrowers or tax credits for investors. • Islamic finance: this sector of investment was calculated to be valued at close to USD1.9 trillion in 2015. Encouraging governments and corporates to issue and list bonds on recognised exchanges for example would help deepen and broaden the Islamic finance space. Other avenues considered included educating the international community which would help to Islamic financing more mainstream. • Fintech. The UK has one of the leading Fintech ecosystems in the world and this parked intense interest from the group. The focus here is providing an environment for bi-lateral collaboration between the UK and ASEAN. The Singapore-UK Fintech bridge was launched two years ago showing particular commitment between the UK and Singapore Financial Services regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to develop their Fintech sectors. Fintech has had a growing influence on financial markets and is considered by many as the engine for growth in financial services. This is subjective of course but taking one area in isolation such as money services, estimates indicate the potential volume could reach more than USD3 trillion in a matter of years rather than decades. This gives an idea of the scale of the industry and the anticipated influence on the financial sector over time and does raise the question of the influence on the wider financial services space. There is evidently abundant energy to develop ASEAN capital markets and to facilitate such growth global collaboration is important. The UK is one of the leading global financial centres and is very well placed to assist ASEAN economies which are seeking to develop their capital markets. The areas laid out are some of the many being considered. Clearly there is scope for growth and collaboration as financial services evolves in the coming years. TheCityUK will undoubtedly be heavily involved with the UK government and industry partners working to influence policy, regulation, standards and helping to improve collaboration and global connectivity. The Financial Services and Fintech business community in Singapore is delighted to have formed the connection with TheCityUK and look forward to a strong working relationship in the coming years and developing these objectives in conjunction with The British Chamber business community.
Singapore Energy Briefing in London On 9th May 2018, the Chamber's Energy & Utilities business group organised its first Singapore Energy Briefing in London in partnership with the Energy Institute. The session brought together experts to provide an overview of key energy development opportunities. It was fantastic to see the level of interest from British companies as the Chamber continues to promote trade opportunities for British business and strengthen partnerships between Singapore and the UK. We will look to facilitate similar initiatives with our business groups and British business in the future, particularly in industries where the UK is playing a leading role. Please do contact us if you would like to partner on a similar project. Thank you to the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) for participating, our event sponsor, KPMG, and our supporting partner, UK-ASEAN Business Council (UKABC).