MAS, HKMA to develop cross-border trade finance platform using blockchain

MAS also partnered with MIT for collaborations on fintech.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will test and develop distributed ledger technology (DLT) with institutions in the US and Hong Kong.

In a speech for the Singapore Fintech Festival, MAS managing director Ravi Menon said the regulator and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered a research and development (R&D) collaboration in fintech.

Both will run pilot tests in MIT's Media Lab using DLT, cryptography, quantum computing and big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning.

MAS is launching a $27m grant related to AI and data analytics as part of its $225m Financial Sector Technology & Innovation Scheme. It will be used to upgrade the technology in financial institutions and help professionals upskill.

Moreover, MAS and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will develop a cross-border platform for trade finance using DLT.

The platform, called Global Trade Connectivity Network (GTCN) will be an open architecture platform that enables the seamless transfer of digital documents and data across borders, starting with the Singapore-Hong Kong trade corridor.

The institution expects GTCN to go live in early 2019.

Meanwhile, MAS also announced a collaboration with the Bank of Canada that will focus on cross-border payments using blockchain technology.