The United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore are deepening their cooperation on digital finance and sustainable finance.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement on Tuesday that the duo have held the 11th UK-Singapore Financial Dialogue in Singapore, reaffirming their strong and longstanding partnership, the discussions focused on advancing cooperation in digital finance and innovation, capital markets, sustainable finance, and regional and multilateral initiatives.
The two countries exchanged views on digital finance and innovation, including taking stock of and advancing their cooperation in digital assets, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum technologies.
Discussions on digital assets and financial market infrastructure covered initiatives from both jurisdictions aimed at supporting cross-border use cases for tokenisation and wholesale digital markets.
These included the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Project Guardian and BLOOM, Global Layer One (GL1), alongside the UK’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, the work of the UK Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, the Digital Securities Sandbox, and ongoing work of the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on tokenisation and wholesale digital markets.
Developments in crypto-assets and stablecoins and the implications of digital money for wholesale markets and institutional settlements were also discussed.
The Dialogue affirmed the importance of safe and responsible AI adoption in financial services. Initiatives discussed included the UK’s AI Adoption Plan for Financial Services and related measures under its Financial Services Strategy, as well as Singapore’s Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR) initiative, which sets out a framework on how AI agents may carry out financial tasks safely, securely, and reliably.
MAS and the FCA also reviewed progress under the UK-Singapore AI in Finance Partnership, including PathFin.ai, Spotlight, the FCA Supercharged Sandbox, the AI Observatory, and the ongoing work on an AI taxonomy. Discussions covered practical approaches and good practices for responsible AI adoption, and possible use cases for future cooperation.
The exchange on quantum technologies covered the UK’s and Singapore’s approach to quantum security and supervisory expectations for financial institutions transitioning to quantum-safe technologies, including the UK National Cyber Security Centre’s post-quantum cryptography migration guidance, as well as lessons learnt from MAS’ Quantum Key Distribution sandbox with industry partners.
The UK and Singapore also exchanged views on initiatives to strengthen their respective capital markets and support enterprise growth. HM Treasury (HMT) shared progress on the UK’s program of capital markets reforms, and on measures to broaden access to private capital.
MAS provided an update on the suite of measures introduced by the Equities Market Review Group to strengthen Singapore’s equities market competitiveness.
The UK and Singapore also discussed efforts to strengthen their respective growth capital ecosystems. HMT provided an update on the British Business Bank’s venture and growth capital initiatives, while MAS shared about Singapore’s Growth Capital Workgroup, and its efforts to strengthen financing across deal origination, capital raising, and capital recycling.
Meanwhile, the UK and Singapore discussed their respective approaches to fostering sustainable finance and initiatives on adaptation and resilience. The UK shared updates on the Transition Finance Pilot, the Transition Finance Council Guidelines, and the Green Finance Institute’s Transition Finance Lab.
The UK also shared lessons learnt in supporting climate adaptation through insurance markets, the FCA’s Climate Scenarios Sandbox, and the Climate Financial Risk Forum, which is jointly convened by the FCA and the BOE. Singapore outlined ongoing revisions to the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy 2.0 as well as Singapore’s experience with the Financial Sector Carbon Market Grant.
MAS issues supervisory expectations on responsible AI adoption by financial institutions