Financial Sector Growth Initiatives
MAS enhanced the Significantly Rooted Foreign Bank (SRFB) framework to recognise SRFBs with a significantly higher degree of rootedness to Singapore
3 August 2020
MAS announced that it would consider granting an additional full bank licence to SRFBs that substantially exceed the SRFB baseline criteria. The banks can use the licence to establish a separate subsidiary to develop new or alternative business models, strengthening the ability of SRFBs to complement the local banks as anchors in Singapore’s financial system. In December 2020, Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited became the first bank to be awarded the enhanced SRFB privilege and corresponding additional full bank licence.
Singapore’s first China bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched
17 September 2020
The ETF is managed by CSOP Asset Management Limited and was developed in partnership with ICBC Wealth Management and ICBC Asset Management (Global) as its investment advisors. The ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Government Bond Index ETF was the world’s largest Chinese pure government bond ETF at launch and helped showcase Singapore as an attractive listing venue for fixed income ETFs. By June 2021, the ETF’s assets under management (AUM) had exceeded S$1.8 billion.
MAS set up the Singapore Funds Industry Group (SFIG) to strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a leading full-service asset management and fund domiciliation hub
27 April 2021
The SFIG is a new partnership between MAS and the private sector to strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a leading full-service asset management and fund domiciliation hub. The SFIG will bring together all the key players across the entire asset management value chain, including not just fund managers but also service providers, such as lawyers, tax advisors, fund administrators and directors.
The aim of the SFIG is to identify emerging industry trends and formulate strategies to develop the asset management ecosystem, such as developing solutions to achieve greater economies of scale, providing recommendations to improve regulatory frameworks, growing the pool of fund specialists and directors and conducting outreach and engagements with Singapore-based and global asset managers, asset owners and service providers.
Singapore registered strong growth in the asset management industry and corporate debt market
30 September 2020 and 30 October 2020
Singapore’s assets under management grew by 15.7% to S$4 trillion in 2019. Growth was driven by valuation gains across major asset markets as well as strong inflows into traditional and alternative sector strategies managed or advised out of Singapore. The number of managers based in Singapore also rose from 895 managers in end-2019 to 953 in end-2020. The growth was complemented by the launch of the Variable Capital Companies (VCC) framework on 15 January 2020, with more than 200 VCCs incorporated within the first year.
The size of Singapore’s corporate bond market grew 10.2% year-on-year to reach S$420 billion as of 31 December 2019. To strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a leading bond centre and building on the success of the Asian Bond Grant Scheme, MAS launched the Global-Asia Bond Grant Scheme on 1 January 2020 to support more bond issuances from debutant Asian issuers.
Singapore’s Insurance-linked Securitisation Market registered good growth
July 2020
Singapore welcomed the issuance of seven catastrophe bonds in 2020 and extended the Insurance-linked Securities (ILS) grant scheme for two years until 31 December 2022, to further strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading ILS domicile in Asia. The grant scheme provides up to 100% funding support for the issuance costs of an ILS bond in Singapore, up to a cap of S$2 million.