MAS commits up to S$100 million to support quantum and AI capabilities in financial sector

27 August 2024

On 18 July 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) announced that it will commit an additional S$100 million under the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Grant Scheme (“FSTI 3.0”) to support financial institutions (“FIs”) in building capabilities in quantum and AI technologies and enable the advancement of quantum and AI-related innovation and adoption in financial services.

Catalysing development of quantum capabilities in financial industry

MAS has been collaborating with the National Quantum Office following the announcement of the National Quantum Strategy by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in May 2024. MAS will establish a Quantum Track under FSTI 3.0 to support FIs’ interests to build quantum capabilities in Singapore. The Quantum Track will comprise the following grants:

  • Technology Centres grant: This supports the establishment of quantum computing and security innovation functions in Singapore, to enable FIs and global technology companies to explore and unlock new opportunities arising from quantum technologies. This grant will provide funding support of up to 50% on manpower and other qualifying expenses such as hard/software infrastructure, subscriptions, and licences, for a period of 24 months.
  • Technology Innovation grant: This comprises two sub-tracks to support adoption of quantum technology solutions by FIs. The first sub-track aims to catalyse meaningful institutional use cases that bring about significant impact to business. The second sub-track will support strategic endeavours to solve relevant industry-wide problem statements. Up to 50% co-funding support will be provided to advance the exploration and implementation of such quantum solutions.
  • Security grant: This aims to enhance cyber security readiness to better prepare Singapore’s financial infrastructure and services for the quantum era. Funding support of up to 30% will be provided to enable experimentation and development of quantum technology-related pilots that explore the use of Post-quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) to safeguard firms’ critical data.

MAS will also work with institutes of higher learning and the Institute of Banking and Finance on talent development initiatives to support the development of quantum capabilities in the financial services sector.

Strengthening the adoption of AI in financial industry

With the advent of Generative AI, FIs have embarked on initiatives to map the technology’s opportunities and risks and have begun piloting it across a range of use cases. Nevertheless, MAS notes that the level of AI-readiness and adoption varies across FIs in Singapore. To address this, MAS will enhance the existing AI and data grant scheme under FSTI 3.0 to:

  • Bolster FIs’ development and deployment of AI technologies in Singapore: MAS explains that Singapore has the potential to become a centre of excellence for anchoring AI capabilities, such as in (i) the development of applications, and (ii) testing and deployment of AI solutions for the financial sector. MAS will support FIs in establishing AI innovation centres in Singapore for a range of functions including AI model building and training, deployment of AI models for high-impact use cases, governance and risk management, and testing and monitoring; and
  • Develop AI platforms to address industry wide use cases: There are strong prospects for the financial industry to apply AI to solve industry-wide problems beyond what each FI can do individually. MAS states that this involves the development of frameworks and platforms for policies and protocols that enable secure and privacy-protected data exchange where FIs can collaborate on industry-wide use cases. For example, MAS has identified scam and fraud detection as a use case for the first pilot project, and will work with banks, technology solution providers, and public agencies on this. The funding will support projects that accelerate the development of industry-wide AI solutions and high-impact use cases.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the MAS website www.mas.gov.sg: