Ensuring Safe Management and Resilience of the Financial Sector
MAS worked with The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) to jointly produce a study on future workplaces for financial institutions (FIs) in Singapore
23 March 2021
MAS and ABS jointly commissioned a study to enhance the resilience of future workplaces of FIs in Singapore. The study sought to set a benchmark on workplace re-design in support of a safer environment for both FI employees and customers. The study set out good practices and recommendations for FIs to review and redesign their workplaces, to better support the well-being and safety of their employees and enhance workplace resilience to future pandemics.
MAS collaborated with the industry on efforts to maintain operational resilience of the financial sector
Ongoing
The Return to Onsite Operations Taskforce (ROOT) was jointly set up by MAS and ABS to share best practices and to enhance the industry’s pandemic-preparedness. ROOT conducted briefings for the financial sector to share guiding principles on the gradual resumption of onsite operations, best practices to promote the well-being of employees, and measures to address technology and cyber risks arising from increased remote working and use of video-teleconferencing platforms. ROOT also discussed ways to leverage technology and implement solutions to enhance FIs’ operations during COVID-19.
As part of the initiatives under ROOT, MAS and ABS also jointly issued an information paper that highlighted risks for the financial sector arising from the large-scale adoption of remote working arrangements and shared risk mitigation practices.
MAS and ABS continued to promote adoption of e-payments by PayNow and Singapore Quick Response Code (SGQR) for more effective safe-distancing
9 April 2020
Supported by MAS, ABS mounted a sustained campaign to promote the use of PayNow, PayNow Corporate, and SGQR in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the objectives of encouraging individuals and businesses to adopt e-payments solutions for their financial transactions, and contributing to the effectiveness of the safe-distancing measures put in place by the Ministry of Health.
MAS called on local banks and finance companies to moderate FY2020 dividends
29 July and 7 August 2020
MAS called on locally-incorporated banks headquartered in Singapore and locally-incorporated finance companies to cap their total dividends per share (DPS) for FY2020 at 60% of FY2019’s DPS, and to offer shareholders the option of receiving the FY2020 dividends in scrip in lieu of cash. While banks and finance companies had built up strong capital buffers over the years, the dividend restriction served as a pre-emptive measure to bolster their resilience and capacity to support lending to businesses and individuals through this period of uncertainty in the business environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
MAS emphasised the importance of cyber resilience to guard against COVID-19 risks
Ongoing
MAS issued a number of advisories to FIs to highlight major COVID-19 related cyber threats and to exhort them to take pre-emptive measures to protect themselves and their customers, given the growing prevalence of COVID-19 themed cyber-attacks and scams.
MAS closely monitored Singapore's derivatives clearing houses to ensure risks were adequately mitigated when market volatility heightened during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
Ongoing
In view of the heightened market volatility, MAS worked closely with the clearing houses in Singapore to increase monitoring of all centrally-cleared products to ensure that clearing houses manage their risk exposures appropriately and that sufficient collateral are collected.
MAS also enhanced its supervisory stress testing methodology to better capture extreme volatility, increased correlation between market prices of derivatives products during stressed events, and forward-looking stress shocks.