Saturday, 20 July 2024
MAS commits $74.5M to support quantum and AI in finance
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced an additional SGD 100 million ($74.5 million) commitment under the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Grant scheme (FSTI 3.0). This funding aims to support financial institutions in building quantum and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and advancing related innovation and adoption in financial services.
Development of quantum capabilities in the financial industry
Quantum technology is a rapidly advancing field that holds significant potential to transform the financial industry and broader economy. MAS has been collaborating with the National Quantum Office following the announcement of the National Quantum Strategy by deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat in May 2024. MAS will establish a quantum track under FSTI 3.0 to support financial institutions’ interests to build quantum capabilities in Singapore.
The Quantum track will comprise the following grants:
• Technology Centres grant – This supports the establishment of quantum computing and security innovation functions in Singapore, to enable financial institutions and global technology companies to explore and unlock new opportunities arising from quantum technologies. This grant will provide funding support of up to 50% on manpower and other qualifying expenses such as hard/software infrastructure, subscriptions and licenses, for a period of 24 months.
• Technology Innovation grant – This comprises two sub-tracks to support the adoption of quantum technology solutions by financial institutions. The first sub-track aims to catalyse meaningful institutional use cases that bring about significant impact to business. The second sub-track will support strategic endeavours to solve relevant industry-wide problem statements. Up to 50% co-funding support will be provided to advance the exploration and implementation of such quantum solutions.
• Security grant – This aims to enhance cyber security readiness to better prepare our financial infrastructure and services for the quantum era. Funding support of up to 30% will be provided to enable experimentation and development of quantum technology-related pilots that explore the use of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) 2 and quantum key distribution (QKD) to safeguard firms’ critical data.
MAS will also work with Institutes of Higher Learning and the Institute of Banking and Finance on talent development initiatives to support the development of quantum capabilities in the financial services sector.
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
