Singapore Plans Year-End Fintech Event Amid Virus Restrictions

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore is planning an online and physical fintech festival amid the spread of the coronavirus across the globe.

The Singapore FinTech Festival x SWITCH 2020 event, which will run 7 to 11 December, will allow participants to meet at key physical locations and connect to an “online city,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Enterprise Singapore said in a joint statement on Monday. There were about 60,000 participants at last year's event.

Singapore said last month it is preparing for the resumption of business events as economic activities restart, with authorities developing a risk-management framework for events of up to 50 attendees.

Here are the key features of this event:

• Exhibitors will showcase technologies in areas such as fintech, artificial intelligence, 5G, healthcare, trade and urban solutions online
• Physical events will include networking initiatives with local government and industry participants
• Key focus will be on people and talent, supporting initiatives around talent development, reskilling and upskilling of the finance and tech workforce
• Ravi Menon, managing director at MAS, said in an online panel that the financial services industry has been doing “pretty well” amid the pandemic as most of the sector's functions have been digitized, with e-payments taking off “spectacularly”

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