Qinthara Fasya | 23 December 2021
The digitisation of financial market infrastructure raises a host of legal, regulatory and structuring issues impacting financial market infrastructures, financial institutions, financial technology companies, end users and industry bodies.
Linklaters, a leading global law firm, has published its Fintech Global Year to Come 2022 and Year in Review 2021, which highlights global fintech trends for 2022 and key legal and regulatory developments in the fintech space in 2021.
The review covers the full breadth of the fintech legal spectrum and addresses global, EU and country specific developments for 17 jurisdictions, including Singapore. Please find the full report accessible here.
Singapore – Key fintech developments to watch in 2022:
- The MAS enhances Fintech Regulatory Sandbox with Sandbox Plus
The MAS announced three enhancements to its Fintech Regulatory Sandbox framework to further catalyse financial innovation and Fintech adoption – namely by expanding the eligibility criteria to include early adopters of technology innovation, streamlining application with financial grant, and introducing the Deal Fridays programme, a platform for deal-making opportunities. The enhancements are part of Sandbox Plus, which takes effect on 1 January 2022.
- More Payment Services licences granted
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted several DPT providers, such as DBS Vickers and Independent Reserve, licences under the Payment Services Act in 2021. Given that the MAS recently granted in-principle approval to several payment services licence applicants, more licences are expected to be issued.
- The MAS and industry to pilot digital platforms for better data to support green finance
The MAS announced that it will partner the industry to pilot four digital platforms under Project Greenprint, to address the financial sector’s needs for good data on sustainability. The common utility platform pilots (i.e. Greenprint Common Disclosure Portal, Greenprint Data Orchestrator, Greenprint ESG Registry and Greenprint Marketplace) are expected to be completed in the second half of 2022.
- Amendments to Singapore Personal Data Protection law
There are amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act, which have been delayed in coming into force until at least February 2022, including a ‘data portability’ obligation which requires an organisation to transmit a requesting individual’s personal data to another organisation with a presence in Singapore. There are also increased penalties for data breaches with a potential liability of up to 10% of an organisation’s annual turnover in Singapore, or SGD 1 million, whichever is higher.
Read the full report here.
