India, Singapore Forge Financial Innovation MoU

Editorial Staff

4 June 2018

Governments of India and Singapore have forged an agreement to bolster financial innovation between the two countries, including a cross-border payment link to accelerate real-time fund transfers. The move comes in contrast to a recent spat between the countries’ stock exchanges.

The Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India, and the on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The countries agreed to set up a joint working group, to be co-chaired by MAS deputy managing director Jacqueline Loh and India Department of Financial Services additional secretary Ravi Mital.

Among agreements are those of NETS and National Payments Corporation of India NPCI to partner over building a cross-border payment linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Immediate Payment Service. The link aids real-time fund transfer between bank accounts in India and Singapore to support trade, tourism and remittance.

The joint working group will include representatives from the DEA, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Union Identification Authority of India, Reserve Bank of India, Stock Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India, and the Ministry of External Affairs of India. Representatives from Singapore’s agencies will include the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, Government Technology Agency, Enterprise Singapore and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Economic relations between Singapore and India haven’t always been easy recently. Stock exchanges in Singapore and India last week scrapped talks over forging a cross-border trading link, adding to a tortuous relationship in recent months. The Singapore Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India abandoned the talks as they could not reach a deal on issues such as timing and regulatory guidelines.