Singapore's MAS, UNCDF Tie Up To Drive Financial Inclusion In Asean

SINGAPORE, April 18 (Bernama) -- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have formed a strategic partnership under the latter’s ongoing Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) programme. The partnership aims to facilitate the development and access to digital financial services in the ASEAN region. MAS and UNCDF SHIFT will explore opportunities to work on digitisation of low-tier financial institutions, namely financial cooperatives, micro finance institutions and banks, in ASEAN. This will enable the financial service providers to better aid financial access and usage to serve the marginalised population, including women. "We believe that financial services has a role to play in the economic empowerment of women and the marginalised," MAS' Chief FinTech Officer, Sopnendu Mohanty, said in a statement Tuesday. As the first initiative under the collaboration, MAS is a Supporting Partner of UNCDF SHIFT's latest Challenge Fund Window. The fund provides co-funding grants for innovative, scalable business models that foster regulated international remittances to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) for women. Remittances for these four countries contributed US$17.2 billion (US$1=RM4.42). The Challenge Fund mechanism incentivises innovations in women-inclusive business models that financial institutions would not ordinarily be prepared to pursue. The fund aims to support projects for which social returns are assured, but financial returns may not yet have been proven. The UNCDF SHIFT Challenge Fund Window focusing on remittances is open to applicants from April 7 to June 9, 2017, and the grant awards will be finalised by October 2017. -- BERNAMA