Singapore and the UK commit new financial services cooperation

They have set up a new financial partnership which is designed to explore opportunities for greater financial cooperation, including enhanced information sharing and closer cooperation, according to a joint statement from Monetary Authority of Singapore and UK’s HM Treasury.

The two countries signed two agreements, one on financial services cooperation and another to enhance bilateral cyber security cooperation, including the sharing of cyber-related information and supervisory best practices.

They discussed wider areas for future cooperation including regulatory cooperation, green finance and carbon markets, fintech and stablecoins.

The countries will work towards identifying compatibilities in the UK and Singapore taxonomy principles and metrics for green and transitional activities.

They will encourage the private sector to explore ways to develop a transparent and robust voluntary carbon market for high quality voluntary carbon credits, such as deepening trading linkages and data sharing between Singapore and London to enhance inter-operability and cross-regional capital flows.

Nicholas Hanna of Pinsent Masons MPillay, the Singapore joint law venture between MPillay and Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, said: “The fabric of Singapore is made up of a world class financial centre and the recent alliance with the UK to further cooperation in green finance and carbon markets, fintech and stablecoins, is a natural progression. Both nations have focused heavily on developing new financial products alongside technology and security to build robust economies. The fact that these well-established financial centres are uniting to further the growth in financial products can only be viewed as a good thing.”