Crypto speculation, CBDCs, talent crunch in focus at Singapore fintech festival

Should be ‘no doubt’ Singapore embracing emerging tech such as Web3 and blockchain, PM-in-waiting Lawrence Wong says, even as ‘constructive paranoia’ is needed

Topics in focus at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022 include retail central bank digital currencies and talent crunch in the sector

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Singapore’s Finance Minister Lawrence Wong at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022. Photo: Facebook

Published: 1:06pm, 2 Nov 2022Updated: 8:55pm, 2 Nov 2022

Singapore’s hopes to spur “innovative and responsible” digital asset activities while keeping a lid on mass market cryptocurrency speculation are front and centre in discussions taking place in its Fintech Festival, which has coincided with a similar event in rival financial hub Hong Kong.

While Hong Kong has offered fresh indications that it views legalised retail trading of digital assets as key to regaining its status as a financial centre in the post-pandemic era, Singapore officials have made clear they are concerned about the risks involved in speculative trading.

In a keynote speech on Wednesday, Singapore’s deputy prime minister and the minister for finance Lawrence Wong reiterated the central bank’s warnings about the risks involved in the trading of digital tokens, especially for retail investors.

“But there should be no doubt at all that we are embracing fully the underlying technologies of distributed ledgers and the potential that they have to transform financial markets,” he said. A distributed ledger is more commonly known as a blockchain.

“And that’s why in Singapore, we embrace a healthy level of constructive paranoia … and divine discontent. We are never fully satisfied with the status quo and we are endlessly striving to do better,” he said.

Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s prime minister-in-waiting and minister for finance, said the city state was “always looking at ways to use digital technologies”. Photo: Reuters

Wong said the pandemic had been “a significant catalyst” in the push towards digitalisation, and that the city state was “always looking at ways to use digital technologies to streamline and further improve business processes”.