SINGAPORE — To grow the funding landscape for start-ups and boost the financial technology (fintech) industry, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is reviewing the regulatory regime for venture capital (VC) managers, and studying whether existing incentives are suitable for this class of fund managers.

“The MAS is looking to significantly simplify and shorten the authorisation process for new VC managers,” said MAS chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday at the launch of Lattice 80, a fintech hub for start-ups in Singapore promoted by Asian private investment group Marvelstone Group.

The key role that VCs play in stimulating economic dynamism has been a recurring theme in discussions of the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE), he said. The CFE is tasked with developing strategies for Singapore to become a vibrant and resilient economy with sustainable growth.

“To the extent that there are contractual safeguards to provide sufficient protection to a VC’s sophisticated investor base, MAS is looking to exempt VC managers from business conduct requirements that are currently applied to asset managers in general,” he added.

The regulator is also studying whether existing incentives for funds and fund managers, which have been successful in attracting traditional asset managers to set up in Singapore and grow over time, are suitable to anchor VC funds and VC fund managers here.

“We recognise that VC funds and fund managers are typically smaller in size and headcount than traditional asset managers. But they contribute in a different way by supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore and the region. We will take this into account in assessing the requirement for VC fund managers to qualify for our incentives,” said Mr Shanmugaratnam.

The MAS will be holding a public consultation on its proposals in January and aims to introduce the changes by July.

Innovation will drive Singapore’s economic future, noted Mr Shanmugaratnam. “It will disrupt existing business models, but it is how consumers get better value, how firms can scale up and grow internationally and how we create quality jobs for our people,” he said.

Singapore’s strategy is not to choose between financial institutions and new fintech players but to provide the conditions for both to innovate, compete and collaborate. The aim is to create a fintech ecosystem where innovation thrives, he said.

MAS is also working with the industry to facilitate greater collaboration, and is encouraging the development of open application programming interfaces (APIs) among financial institutions to enable efficient data sharing. Banking giant Citi yesterday launched a new global API portal to enable developers to build client solutions at a faster pace.

Singapore is home to more than 300 fintech start-ups, focused on each segment of the value chain — from providing consumers more seamless payments services to offering institutions enhanced, automated fraud monitoring, said Mr Shanmugaratnam. More than 20 global banks and insurance companies have set up innovation labs and research centres in Singapore. Several will be opening their labs next week during the FinTech Festival to showcase their experiments, he added.