To Focus on Promise and Pitfalls of AI
Singapore, 13 November 2023
The eighth edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) will
kick off this week from 14 to 17 November 2023, convening leaders and experts from around the
world in finance, technology and public policy. Besides focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI), SFF
2023 will facilitate dialogues on re-architecting the financial system, preparing for future risks in
technology and climate, and powering entrepreneurs and the future tech workforce.
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SFF 2023’s central theme will revolve around “AI for good. AI for good?” Some projections
indicate that Generative AI alone could boost global GDP by nearly US$7 trillion in the coming
decade, alongside widespread adoption of AI in enterprise operations. At the same time, there is
considerable caution around some inherent risks in AI. SFF 2023 will delve into AI’s promise as
well as pitfalls, providing a platform to explore a unified vision for the future, harnessing its
benefits while mitigating its risks.
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SFF 2023 will build on earlier discussions around driving low-carbon transitions,
expanding financial access for underserved populations, bolstering digital economic resilience,
and scaling promising AI and Web3 solutions regionally and globally.
Curtain Raiser: Elevandi Insights
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Preceding the SFF 2023 main conference is the by-invitation-only Elevandi Insights on 14
November, bringing together regulators, policymakers, industry leaders and investors in a full
day programme comprising two key components:
● The Capital Meets Policy Dialogue will assemble influential policymakers and
investors to debate pressing challenges in capital investment, value creation, and
policymaking relevant to AI.
● The Public-Private Roundtables will feature open public-private sector leadership
dialogues to produce actionable outcomes, ranging from whitepapers to
announcements of new commitments.
The Signature SFF Conference
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The SFF Conference, which will run from 15 to 17 November, will feature over 800+
speakers across 300+ hours of content, covering eight themes:• Responsible Tokenisation
• Beneficial AI
• Accelerating ESG
• Efficient Payments
• Scaling Insurances and Pension
• Digitising Inclusion
• Advancing Talent
• Empowering Entrepreneurship
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Headline speakers at the Conference include:
• Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
• Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank
• Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore
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Other notable speakers are as follows (longer list in the Annex):
• Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Circle
• Manu Chopra, Chief Executive Officer, Karya
• Dr Deng Yaping, Olympic Champion & Table Tennis Grand Slam Winner, DYP Sports
Investment Fund
• Thomas Dohmke, Chief Executive Officer, GitHub
• Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, Governor, Central Bank of Malaysia
• Eric Jing, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Ant Group
• Shekhar Kapur, Film, TV, Theatre Director & Producer
• Jeff Lawson, Co-founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Twilio
• Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology,
Republic of Indonesia
• H.E. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines*
• Mairead McGuinness, Commissioner Financial Services, Financial Stability & Capital
Markets Union, European Commission
• Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore
• Dr Margaret Mitchell, Chief Ethics Scientist, Hugging Face
• John Rwangombwa, Governor, National Bank of Rwanda
• Jack Selby, Managing Director, Thiel Capital LLC
• Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme*
• François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor, Banque de France*
• Anil Wadhwani, Chief Executive Officer, Prudential plc
• Perry Warjiyo, Governor, Bank Indonesia
• Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered
*attending virtuallyFestival Highlights
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The SFF Exhibition will host a record number of close to 700 exhibitors and 36
international pavilions across five thematic zones – Technology, ESG, Founders, Regulation and
Talent. There will be personalised meeting opportunities for attendees to connect with top-level
investors in the Founders Zone, industry leaders and mentors in the Talent Zone, and regulators
and central bankers from over 30 jurisdictions in the Regulation Zone.
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The Innovation Lab Crawl will take place during 14 to 17 November1 . With 25
participating organisations, attendees will be able to explore innovation labs across the island
and witness up-and-coming projects and innovations in the FinTech industry.
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Continuing its emphasis on skills and knowledge development, SFF 2023 will offer
Certificate Programmes delivered in partnership with top universities in Singapore. These
courses include upskilling opportunities on ChatGPT and AI in Finance with the Asian Institute of
Digital Finance, National University of Singapore, and Green and Sustainable Finance 101 with
SMU Academy, Singapore Management University2 .
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SFF 2023 will also see the launch of The Big Spark, a new business television show
produced by Mediacorp in partnership with SFF and TiE Global Summit3 . The eight-episode series
will spotlight Southeast Asia startups – throughout the series, pre-seed to Series-A startups will
gain real-world business advice from industry mentors and experts as they pitch to seasoned
investors who have committed to invest more than S$1 million in these emerging enterprises.
The filming for the show will start at the SFF, and the show is set to air on Channel NewsAsia in
2024.
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Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS and Chairman of Elevandi Board, said,
“The FinTech industry is poised for another major transformation, thanks to recent advances in
artificial intelligence. This will usher in a new era of financial innovation and transformation. SFF
2023 will continue to be at the forefront of this global conversation, bringing together visionary
leaders from civil society, technology, financial institutions, government, investment, and
entrepreneurship to drive meaningful change and create a secure future for all.”
1 The week-long Innovation Lab Crawl will run for the full day on 14 November, and run only in the afternoons
during the SFF 2023 Conference, between 15-17 November. View the full schedule here:
https://www.fintechfestival.sg/innovation-lab-crawl
2 View the full list of educational programmes running in partnership with SFF here:
https://www.fintechfestival.sg/certificates
3 Learn more about TiE Global Summit here: https://www.fintechfestival.sg/tgs13
Paul Lee, Chief Executive (Markets) at Constellar, said, “The continued growth of SFF
year-on-year is a testament to the innovation and resilience of the global FinTech community.
This drives us to continue evolving the festival experience, building a safe space for curating
meaningful conversations to create and unlock value for our industry stakeholders. We look
forward to bolstering the FinTech ecosystem by bringing together emerging technologies and
fostering impactful connections at this edition of SFF, accelerating partnerships and catalysing
collaborations that will redefine the future of financial services.”
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SFF 2023 is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Elevandi and Constellar,
in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore. For more details and SFF 2023
registration, visit www.fintechfestival.sg.
***Annex: SFF 2023 Featured Speakers List
Financial sector leaders
• Kfir Godrich, Chief Innovation Officer, BlackRock
• Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & Chief Executive Officer, Women’s World Banking
• Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, Group President & Chief Executive Officer, Maybank
• Kristo Käärmann, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Wise
• Sigal Mandelker, Ribbit Capital
• Sheel Mohnot, Managing Partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures
• Kunal Shah, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, CRED
Technology and civil society leaders
• Geoff Allott, Former New Zealand Cricketer
• Dr Krishna Murthy Ella, Executive Chairman, Bharat Biotech International Limited
• Stephen Fleming, Former New Zealand Cricket Captain & Head Coach, Chennai Super
Kings
• Dr Jennifer Holmgren, Chief Executive Officer, LanzaTech
• Julian Teicke, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, wefox
• Chris Young, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Strategy, & Ventures,
MicrosoftAbout the Singapore FinTech Festival
The Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) is organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore,
Elevandi and Constellar and in collaboration with The Association of Banks in Singapore. Since its
inception in 2016, SFF has become the premier platform for the global FinTech community to
engage, connect, and collaborate on issues relating to the confluence of financial services, public
policy, and technology. Last year’s edition brought together more than 62,000 participants from
over 115 countries.
This year’s Singapore FinTech Festival will be held from 14-17 November 2023 and is poised to
be the most consequential event charting a new path for tech, policy and finance worldwide.
About the Monetary Authority of Singapore
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is Singapore’s central bank and integrated financial
regulator. As a central bank, MAS promotes sustained, non-inflationary economic growth
through the conduct of monetary policy and close macroeconomic surveillance and analysis. It
manages Singapore’s exchange rate, official foreign reserves, and liquidity in the banking sector.
As an integrated financial supervisor, MAS fosters a sound financial services sector through its
prudential oversight of all financial institutions in Singapore – banks, insurers, capital market
intermediaries, financial advisors and financial market infrastructures. It is also responsible for
well-functioning financial markets, sound conduct, and investor education. MAS also works with
the financial industry to promote Singapore as a dynamic international financial centre. It
facilitates the development of infrastructures, adoption of technology, and upgrading of skills in
the financial industry.
About Elevandi
Elevandi is a not-for-profit entity set up by the MAS to foster an open dialogue between the
public and private sectors to advance FinTech globally, but with Singapore as the centre of
gravity. The organisation works closely with governments, founders, investors, and corporate
leaders to drive collaboration, education, and new sources of value at the industry and national
levels.
Elevandi’s initiatives have convened over 350,000 people since 2016 through events, closed-door
roundtables, investor programmes, educational initiatives, and research. SFF is the organisation’s
flagship product; other known platforms under its wing include the Point Zero Forum and the
Elevandi Insights Forum.
About Constellar
Constellar connects a global eco-system of event partners and consumers through a holistic
portfolio of intellectual property (IP) in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions
(MICE) industry. As Asia’s partner of reference for curating the innovative event and venue
experiences, Constellar activates impactful networks to bring global markets, businesses and consumers together for sustainable growth. With our expertise and dedication, we are invested
in helping you build trusted relationships with stakeholders for the long term and enabling cross
industry collaboration through world-class audience engagement solutions. Visit constellar.co for
more information.
About The Association of Banks in Singapore
ABS is a non-profit organisation that represents the interests of the banking community in
Singapore. In doing so, ABS works closely with the relevant government authorities towards the
development of a sound financial system in Singapore. Since its establishment in 1973, ABS has
promoted a unifying voice on banking issues. It has brought its members closer together through
various guidelines and banking practices as well as the support of projects of mutual benefit to
face the challenges of the financial and banking community in Singapore. Today ABS has a
membership of 155 local and foreign banks. More information on ABS is available at
www.abs.org.sg