SINGAPORE (Nov 16): The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it has published the “regulatory sandbox” guidelines for financial technology (fintech) experiments after public consultations and learning points from other sandboxes.

According to MAS, the guidelines will improve clarity, flexibility and transparency of the sandbox. These are:

Improved clarity: The guidelines provide examples and elaborations to illustrate MAS’ expectations on the sandbox, including evaluation criteria for entry.

Greater flexibility: The guidelines now allow greater flexibility by relaxing a number of evaluation criteria for entry and allowing for adjustments from market response.

Increased transparency: The regulator will work closely with applicants on the evaluation and experimentation process, with relevant information of approved applications published online.

“The guidelines reflect MAS’ commitment to building a smart financial centre where innovation is pervasive and technology is used widely,” says Jacqueline Loh, deputy managing director, MAS.

“The regulatory sandbox provides a conducive environment where regulatory requirements will be relaxed to enable firms to experiment with promising innovations within boundaries,” she adds.

The guideline has also garnered enthusiastic responses from the financial services industry and fintech startups a like.

“MAS' willingness to embrace new business models and disruptive technologies is clearly a positive development and helps to establish Singapore as a cutting edge and approachable market for investment and innovation,” says Mastercard Asia Pacific in a statement.

“This approach provides clarity to the wider financial market, enabling innovative FinTech companies to discern, at an early stage, the areas of regulation on which to focus their efforts,” says fintech startup Ripple in a statement.