Australia and Singapore's regulators have shaken hands on a deal designed to accelerate fintech innovation in their markets.

The fintech revolution in Asia continues with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and its regulatory counterpart in Australia signing an agreement to boost innovators in this sector.

The MAS and Australian Securities and Investments Commission have signed an “Innovation Functions Co-operation Agreement”. It is designed to help firms in their jurisdictions to set up initial discussions in each other’s market faster and receive advice on required licences, thereby cutting regulatory uncertainty and time to market.

To qualify for the support offered by the agreement, businesses must meet eligibility criteria of their home regulator. Once referred by the regulator, and ahead of applying for licence to operate in the new market, a dedicated team or contact person will help them to understand the regulatory framework in the market they wish to join, and how it applies to them.

“MAS is also looking forward to partner ASIC in joint innovation projects on the application of key technologies such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain and distributed ledgers, big data, and application programming interfaces (API),” said Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer, MAS.

The agreement comes shortly after the MAS launched a consultation with the industry on how regulation around the exploding world of fintech can be best crafted. The regulator issued a paper on proposed guidelines for a regulatory "sandbox” to enable financial and non-financial institutions to experiment with fintech ideas. Separately, in May, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and MAS signed a cooperation agreement to allow financial technology firms in the two countries better access to each other's markets.