Singapore — The United Kingdom and Singapore held their 11th Financial Dialogue on October 20, with HM Treasury and the Monetary Authority of Singapore discussing digital finance, capital markets, sustainable finance and regional initiatives.
Officials from HMT and MAS took part alongside representatives from the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, the High Commission of the Republic of Singapore in London and the British High Commission in Singapore, according to a joint statement published by HM Treasury.
Before the talks, Gwyneth Nurse, Director General (Financial Services) of HMT, held a bilateral discussion with Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development) of MAS. The two re-affirmed the value of the close and wide-ranging engagements between the UK and Singapore.
Discussions on digital assets and financial market infrastructure covered initiatives aimed at supporting cross-border use cases for tokenization and wholesale digital markets. These included MAS’s Project Guardian and BLOOM and Global Layer One (GL1), alongside the UK’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, the work of the UK Wholesale Digital Markets Champion and the Digital Securities Sandbox.
Talks also covered the ongoing work of the BoE and the FCA on tokenization and wholesale digital markets. The two sides discussed developments in crypto-assets and stablecoins, and the implications of digital money for wholesale markets and institutional settlements.
The dialogue affirmed the importance of safe and responsible artificial intelligence adoption in financial services. Initiatives discussed included the UK’s AI Adoption Plan for Financial Services and related measures under its Financial Services Strategy, and Singapore’s Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR) initiative.
SAFR 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 ongoing work on an AI taxonomy. Discussions covered practical approaches and good practices for responsible AI adoption, and possible use cases for future cooperation.
On quantum technologies, the talks covered both countries’ approach to quantum security and supervisory expectations for financial institutions moving to quantum-safe technologies. That included the UK National Cyber Security Centre’s post-quantum cryptography migration guidance and lessons learned from MAS’s Quantum Key Distribution sandbox with industry partners.
HMT shared progress on the UK’s program of capital markets reforms and on measures to broaden access to private capital. MAS gave an update on the measures introduced by the Equities Market Review Group to strengthen the competitiveness of Singapore’s equities market.
On growth capital, HMT provided an update on the British Business Bank’s venture and growth capital initiatives. MAS outlined the work of Singapore’s Growth Capital Workgroup, which aims to strengthen financing across deal origination, capital raising and capital recycling.
The UK shared updates on the Transition Finance Pilot, the Transition Finance Council Guidelines and the Green Finance Institute’s Transition Finance Lab. It also shared lessons learned in supporting climate adaptation through insurance markets, the FCA’s Climate Scenarios Sandbox and the Climate Financial Risk Forum, which the FCA and the BoE convene jointly.
Singapore outlined ongoing revisions to the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy 2.0 and its experience with the Financial Sector Carbon Market Grant.
In 2027, the UK will assume the G20 Presidency and Singapore will hold the ASEAN Chairmanship, and both countries discussed their priorities for these roles and opportunities for collaboration. They also exchanged views on the future work program of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), which is chaired by the Governor of the Bank of England.
An industry-led UK-Singapore business roundtable follows on October 21, with industry representatives from both countries. It will cover opportunities for international cooperation, particularly in the context of the UK’s G20 Presidency and Singapore’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2027.
