Artificial Intelligence and the Financial Centre: summary

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Artificial intelligence entered Singapore’s financial institutions through machine-learning models in risk management, anti-money laundering, fraud detection and customer engagement, before generative and agentic systems extended its reach to drafting, analysis and autonomous action. MAS shaped its governance in successive steps, from the FEAT Principles of 2018 and the Veritas and MindForge industry projects to the Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence Risk Management, finalised in October 2026 with transition periods of twelve and twenty-four months. The Guidelines apply to all financial institutions on a proportionate basis and require an inventory of use cases, a risk materiality assessment based on impact, complexity and reliance, and lifecycle controls that are strictest for credit, underwriting and advice. Liability remains anchored in existing law, since the institution answers for internal and third-party models, its senior managers answer under the accountability guidelines, and the courts hold professionals responsible for every output they adopt, as Quoine v B2C2 and Tajudin show. A tripartite programme to train more than 80,000 of the sector’s 200,000 employees by 2028 expresses Singapore’s wager that artificial intelligence can change financial work without eroding the local workforce on which the financial centre depends.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

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I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

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SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

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