Singapore 2035 — a part of the book Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos.
Part K examines the challenges and prospects of the financial centre over the coming decade.
This part belongs to Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
Crypto-assets: From the Payment Services Act to Project Guardian
Few subjects have tested the reputation of the Monetary Authority of Singapore as severely as crypto-assets. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035The Payment Services Act 2019
Before 2020 the regulation of payments in Singapore was divided between two statutes. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Collapses of 2022 and their regulatory consequences
The first shock came in May 2022. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Digital token service providers under the FSMA
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 is an omnibus statute that gives the Monetary Authority sector-wide powers over financial institutions. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Stablecoins
Stablecoins occupy a special position in the regulatory strategy. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Project Guardian and tokenisation
The Monetary Authority began to explore distributed ledger technology for wholesale finance in 2016, working with banks, international organisations and other central banks on digital currencies… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Crypto-assets: From the Payment Services Act to Project Guardian: practical consequences
A firm that wishes to offer services in crypto-assets from Singapore must first determine which statute applies. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035The comparison with Geneva and Zurich
Switzerland and Singapore both claim legal certainty for crypto-assets, which they achieved by different means. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Crypto-assets: From the Payment Services Act to Project Guardian: summary
Singapore brought cryptocurrency dealing and exchange under licence through the Payment Services Act 2019, in force since 28 January 2020, whose first purpose was to prevent money laundering and… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Sustainable Finance and Carbon Markets
Sustainable finance came late to Singapore. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035The green finance action plan
Singapore’s turn to green finance was announced as policy before the market demanded it. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Taxonomy and disclosure
A taxonomy is a classification system that states which economic activities count as sustainable. It is the dictionary on which green labels, grant eligibility and disclosure depend. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Carbon tax and carbon credits
Singapore introduced Southeast Asia’s first carbon tax on 1 January 2019. The legal basis is the Carbon Pricing Act 2018 and its regulations. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Transition finance in Asia
The transition question in Asia is above all a question of coal. Asia accounts for about half of global greenhouse gas emissions, roughly a third of which come from coal-fired power plants. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Greenwashing and liability
Greenwashing, the presentation of products or activities as more sustainable than they are, is the legal risk that accompanies the growth of the field. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Sustainable Finance and Carbon Markets: practical consequences
For banks, insurers and asset managers in Singapore, sustainable finance has become a matter of risk management and conduct, and only in the second place a business opportunity. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Singapore and Geneva: two routes to sustainable finance
Geneva and Singapore have both made sustainable finance a strategic field, from different starting points and with different instruments. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Sustainable Finance and Carbon Markets: summary
Singapore turned sustainable finance into a strategic field of its financial centre through the Green Finance Action Plan of 2019 and the Finance for Net Zero Action Plan of 2023, using grants,… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Competition: Hong Kong, Dubai, London, Zurich and Geneva
A financial centre is measured against the places that compete for its clients, its firms and its talent. Singapore has never been able to forget this. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Hong Kong
The rivalry between Singapore and Hong Kong is almost as old as the two British settlements. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Dubai and the Gulf
Dubai entered the competition late and from an unusual starting point. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035London
London is the centre on which Singapore was modelled, in law and in institutions. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Zurich and Geneva
For three decades Singapore has been called the Switzerland of Asia. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Rankings and their meaning
The Global Financial Centres Index, first published in 2007 by Z/Yen in London, is the most widely cited ranking of financial centres. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Practical consequences: choosing among centres
A family, a firm or an asset manager choosing among Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, London and the Swiss centres will weigh criteria that rankings capture only partly. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Competition: Hong Kong, Dubai, London, Zurich and Geneva: Singapore and Geneva compared
The Geneva volume describes the competition of centres from the viewpoint of a city that is losing relative market share while growing in absolute terms. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Competition: Hong Kong, Dubai, London, Zurich and Geneva: summary
Singapore ranked fourth in the Global Financial Centres Index of September 2026, one point behind Hong Kong and ahead of Dubai, Zurich and Geneva. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial Intelligence and the Financial Centre
Every generation of technology has reshaped the work of Singapore’s financial centre. The telegraph tied the agency houses of the nineteenth century to London and Calcutta. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial intelligence in banking and asset management
Banks used statistical models long before the term artificial intelligence became fashionable. Credit scoring, market risk models and fraud rules have been part of banking for decades. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Principles for responsible use
Singapore was among the first jurisdictions to issue principles specifically for the use of artificial intelligence in finance. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial intelligence in compliance and supervision
Compliance is one of the most promising and most delicate fields for artificial intelligence. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Liability and accountability
Who is liable when an artificial intelligence system makes a mistake? Singapore has so far answered this question without new legislation. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial intelligence and the future of financial work
The financial sector is one of Singapore’s largest employers of skilled labour. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial Intelligence and the Financial Centre: practical consequences
For financial institutions in Singapore, the Guidelines of October 2026 turn artificial intelligence governance into a project with deadlines. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Comparison with Geneva, Zurich and the European Union
Switzerland and Singapore share a preference for principles and ordinary supervision over a dedicated statute. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Artificial Intelligence and the Financial Centre: summary
Artificial intelligence entered Singapore’s financial institutions through machine-learning models in risk management, anti-money laundering, fraud detection and customer engagement, before… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Geopolitics: Between the United States and China
Singapore became a financial centre in a world that was, for most of its independent history, growing more open. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Strategic rivalry and the financial centre
The modern financial centre was built on assumptions that held for half a century. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Technology controls and supply chains
The most important instrument of the rivalry is technology control. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Sanctions risk
Sanctions reach Singapore at three levels. The first consists of measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council, which Singapore implements as a matter of international obligation. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Singapore as intermediary
Singapore has a long practice of offering itself as a meeting place. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenarios of fragmentation
Economists have tried to measure the cost of a divided world economy. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Geopolitics: Between the United States and China: practical consequences
Banks and asset managers in Singapore should treat geopolitical risk as a permanent feature of their business. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Geopolitics: Between the United States and China: Comparison with Geneva, Hong Kong and Dubai
Switzerland faced the same choice in 2022 and resolved it more decisively. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Geopolitics: Between the United States and China: summary
Singapore built its financial centre in an open world economy whose assumptions the rivalry between the United States and China now calls into question. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenarios for 2035
This last chapter brings together the developments that the preceding chapters of Part K have described one by one: crypto-assets, sustainable finance, competition between centres, artificial… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Method
Scenario planning grew out of military strategy. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenario one: the Asian hub consolidated
The first scenario extends the trends of the period since 2020. Asian wealth continues to grow faster than wealth in Europe and North America. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenario two: fragmentation and neutrality
The second scenario assumes that the rivalry between the United States and China, examined in Chapter V of this part, hardens into a division of the world economy. Tariffs rise and stay high. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenario three: digital disruption
The third scenario assumes that technology changes the structure of financial intermediation faster than the base case suggests. Tokenised bonds, funds and deposits become common. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenario four: integrity crisis
The fourth scenario takes the threats that Part E and Part H described and asks what would happen if one of them materialised on a larger scale. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenarios for 2035: practical consequences
Some decisions perform well in all four scenarios, which makes them the first priority for a prudent firm. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenarios for 2035: the comparison with Geneva
The Geneva volume develops three scenarios for its city: a specialised and connected centre that accepts its rank and concentrates on functions where it remains unrivalled, an eroded centre that… Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Conclusions
Of the four scenarios, the consolidated Asian hub is the most probable in the author’s judgement. Read more Singapore · Singapore 2035Scenarios for 2035: summary
The method of scenarios, which Herman Kahn developed at RAND and Pierre Wack brought to Shell in 1971, has been used by the Singapore government since its experiments in the Ministry of Defence in… Read more