MAS Support Package for Financial Industry & FinTechs - Foong Kooi Fei, Deputy Director, FTIG

MAS Support Package for
Financial Industry &
FinTechs
Foong Kooi Fei, Deputy Director, FTIG

Introduction
   Digital Acceleration Grant

   Training Allowance Grant & Course Fee Subsidy

   FinTech Self-Assessment Framework – Coming Soon!

Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG)
• 80% co-funding for digital solutions that improve productivity, strengthen operational resilience, manage
  risks better, and serve customers better
• DAG has 2 tracks: Institution Project and Industry Pilot

                                                 Institution Project

 Who is Eligible?                    What Projects/Solutions are Eligible?
  Singapore-based financial         Digital solutions that:
   institutions that are regulated    Can contribute to internal improvements in productivity, operational resilience,
   by MAS (licensed or exempted         risk management, and/or customer service;
   from licensing), with not more     Belong to any of the qualifying categories (next slide);
   than 200 staff; and                Are not built from scratch; and
                                      Do not require investment in heavy infrastructure e.g. servers
  Singapore-based FinTechs with
   not more than 200 staff.          What are the Grant KPIs?
   (FinTechs must be certified by    Solution must be used by the applicant for at least 6 months
   SFA)

Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) –
                           Institution Project Track
The categories of solutions supported are:             • Office productivity tools;
• Cloud services;                                      • Project management, software development and
                                                         testing tools;
• Communication and collaboration tools;
                                                       • Risk management solutions;
• Compliance & KYC tools (including transaction
  monitoring tools);                                   • Security-related solutions; and
• Customer relationship and engagement tools           • Solutions to support alternative working
  (including digital customer onboarding);               arrangements, operational resilience, and BCP.
• Data-related services (including data warehousing,
  data automation, data analytics);
• Enterprise services (including HR and accounting
  systems);
• Marketing productivity tools (including customer
  sensing tools, insights generation);

Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) –
                            Institution Project Track
                         Funding Support                                               How to Apply
For applications received now till Dec 2021,                           Download form from MAS Website
 80% co-funding support of qualifying expenses                             Justify how the solution will contribute to
   (Hardware/Software, licence/subscription costs, Professional               productivity/operational resilience/risk
   Services, NO manpower)                                                     management/customer service,
 Applicants can claim for costs incurred since 1 Feb 2020                  Indicate which category the solutions fall
 Funding period is 1 year                                                    under.
 Funding will be disbursed upfront                                    Submit form and supporting documents (SFA
For applications received after Dec 2021, only 70% co-funding.          certification, contracts & invoices) to
                                                                        fintech_office@mas.gov.sg
There is an overall scheme cap for institution project. Each entity
can only claim a maximum of $120K throughout the duration of the           What is the estimated timeline for funds
scheme (i.e. 3 years)                                                   disbursement, from the date of application?
                                                                        Funds will be disbursed within 4 weeks from
    Can I claim for ongoing projects/subscriptions that started         the date MAS received the completed
 before 1 Feb 2020?                                                     Acceptance of Offer and Direct Credit
 Yes, but you can only claim for expenses incurred from 1 Feb 2020.     Authorisation form.

An example…
  FUNDING PERIOD (max. one year): 1 Feb 2020 – 31 Jan 2021 (Earliest start: 1 Feb, min duration: 6 months)
  QUALIFYING COST                                             ITEMS                                                    COST (SGD)
     CATEGORIES
  Professional    Professional services to migrate database to cloud (Feb 2020)                                          3,000
  Services
                  Security testing services after cloud migration (Feb 2020)                                             5,000

                      Outsourced development services of new CRM [Not applicable for funding]

                      Consulting services not tied to any digital solution [PS costs need to be tied to the adoption
                      of a digital solution]
  Hardware &          Cloud service subscription for 12 months (1 Feb 2020 to 31 Jan 2021)                               12,823
  Software            •  Feb 2020: USD 1,000 ~S$1,398 (MAS Exchange Rate in Feb @ 1.3977)
                      •  Mar 2020: USD 1,000 ~S$1,425 (MAS Exchange Rate in Mar @ 1.4247)
                      •  Apr 2020 – Jan 2021: est S$1,000 per month (Rounded down to nearest $1,000 based
                         on March bill)
                      Productivity solution subscription for 12 months (1 Feb 2020 to 31 Jan 2021) @                     1,200
                      S$100/month excluding GST
                      Productivity solution subscription for 6 months (1 Feb 2020 to July 2020) >> Use a different
                      form since funding period is different
                                                                                                    TOTAL COSTS          22,023

                          PROVISIONAL GRANT AMOUNT (80%, ROUND DOWN TO NEAREST $1K, CAP AT $120K)                        17,000

Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) –
                                  Industry Pilot Track
         Who is Eligible                        Funding Support                                   Grant KPIs
                                           For applications received from
 Only Singapore-based FIs with      For applications received now till Dec        Solution must be used for at least 1 yr
  not more than 200 staff            2021,                                         FIs are encouraged to share their
 There must be minimum 3             80% co-funding support of qualifying         experience on the pilot with other
  participating FIs in the project      expenses (Hardware/Software,                firms
                                        licence/subscription costs,
 What Solutions are Eligible            Professional Services, including                        How to Apply
                                        manpower)
 Same as Institution Project         Funding period is 2 years                   Download form from MAS Website
                                      Funding will be on reimbursement            Each participating FI must submit their
                                        basis                                       own form and supporting documents
      What is the advantage of
                                                                                    to fintech_office@mas.gov.sg
  Industry Pilot Track over
  Institution Project Track?         For applications received after Dec 2021,
  FIs can pool requirements          only 70% co-funding.
  together so that cost to develop                                                    Can a FinTech apply on behalf of the FIs?
  new modules or customisations      There is no overall scheme cap for            No, because the KPIs are tied to the FI.
  are shared, wider adoption,        industry pilot. For each project, there is
  higher funding.                    a cap of $100K per participating FI.

Training Allowance Grant (TAG) &
                           Course Fee Subsidy
• TAG: For every local employee (Singapore Citizen & PR) sent for training, there will be a wage
  support of $15/hr of training.
• Course Fee Subsidy: 90% subsidy on course fees

      What are the Eligible Courses                                  How to Apply

 Refer to list on IBF website              Employees sign up for the course directly with the course
 Courses can be taken after office          provider
  hours or during weekends                  Employers only need to pay 10% of course fees to the course
 Examples: Data Science and FinTech,        provider
  Advanced Content Marketing,               Upon completion of the course, employers can apply for TAG
  Blockchain for Capital Markets             through IBF portal. (If you don’t have an existing account, you
                                             can go to IBF website to create one)
* If you are a training provider, please
                                           * FinTechs must get certification from SFA before your employees
contact SFA to get your course
                                           sign up for the course
accredited/recognized by IBF.

FinTech Self-Assessment Framework
• More details coming soon!

Thank you