UK and Singapore deepen financial cooperation across digital finance and capital markets

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UK and Singapore deepen financial cooperation

Highlights

UK and Singapore advance digital finance cooperation, citing initiatives like MAS's Project Guardian, UK's Digital Securities Sandbox, and ongoing tokenisation and AI adoption frameworks.
Dialogue spotlights capital markets reforms, with UK sharing private capital access progress and Singapore revealing Equities Market Review Group proposals to boost domestic equities competitiveness.
Both sides coordinate on sustainable finance, updating on UK's Transition Finance Pilot and Singapore's Singapore-Asia Taxonomy 2.0, and establish 2027 policy priorities ahead of G20 and ASEAN leadership roles.

Digital finance agenda and market initiatives

As reported by Monetary Authority of Singapore, officials at the 11th UK-Singapore Financial Dialogue review cooperation on digital assets, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, alongside wider financial market infrastructure priorities.

The discussions on digital assets and wholesale market infrastructure cover cross-border tokenisation use cases and wholesale digital markets. Initiatives cited include MAS's Project Guardian and BLOOM, Global Layer One, the UK's Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, the work of the UK Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, the Digital Securities Sandbox, and ongoing work by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority on tokenisation and wholesale digital markets.

Both sides also discuss developments in crypto-assets and stablecoins, as well as the implications of digital money for wholesale markets and institutional settlements. On AI, the dialogue affirms the importance of safe and responsible adoption in financial services, with the UK outlining its AI Adoption Plan for Financial Services and Singapore presenting its SAFR framework for agentic finance.

MAS and the FCA also review progress under the UK-Singapore AI in Finance Partnership, including PathFin.ai, Spotlight, the FCA Supercharged Sandbox, the AI Observatory and ongoing work on an AI taxonomy. The exchange on quantum technologies covers supervisory expectations for migration to quantum-safe systems, including UK guidance on post-quantum cryptography and lessons from MAS's Quantum Key Distribution sandbox.

Capital markets reforms and 2027 policy coordination

The dialogue also focuses on measures to strengthen capital markets and support enterprise growth in both jurisdictions. HM Treasury shares progress on UK capital markets reforms and efforts to broaden access to private capital, while MAS updates participants on steps proposed by Singapore's Equities Market Review Group to improve competitiveness in the domestic equities market.

Officials discuss growth capital ecosystems as well, with the UK highlighting British Business Bank venture and growth capital initiatives and Singapore outlining the work of its Growth Capital Workgroup across deal origination, capital raising and capital recycling. On sustainable finance, the UK provides updates on its Transition Finance Pilot, the Transition Finance Council Guidelines and the Green Finance Institute's Transition Finance Lab, while also sharing experience on climate adaptation through insurance markets and climate risk tools developed with the FCA and the Bank of England.

Singapore, for its part, outlines revisions to the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy 2.0 and its experience with the Financial Sector Carbon Market Grant. Both countries also exchange views on priorities for 2027, including the UK's G20 presidency and Singapore's ASEAN chairmanship, as well as the future work programme of the Financial Stability Board.

The Financial Dialogue is followed by an industry-led UK-Singapore business roundtable on 21 October focused on international cooperation opportunities. The 12th UK-Singapore Financial Dialogue is set to be hosted by the UK in 2027.

In our earlier article on the Bank of England’s push for “bare metal” recovery planning, we outlined how UK supervisors are urging major banks to build independent fallback systems to keep critical services running if primary technology is compromised. The report also highlighted warnings that AI is increasing the scale and complexity of cyberattacks, reinforcing the need for stronger end-to-end operational resilience across the financial system.

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