The following is adapted for academic purposes from the original speech: Staying on Top of Our Game by Singapore Minister Mr Ong Ye Kung during the launch of the Financial Services Industry Transformation Map on 30th Oct 2017.

The regulator facilitates the development of infrastructure upon which new services and ideas can thrive. A good example is the payments infrastructure. Three years ago, MAS worked with the banking industry to launch FAST, to conduct direct real-time transfers between bank accounts. This year, the banks launched PayNow, which links bank accounts to NRIC or mobile numbers, making transfers more convenient. More importantly, PayNow will activate the full potential of FAST. It currently works only for P2P, but will be progressively expanded for P2B and B2B next year. To further facilitate this, we will introduce by the end of the year a common QR code that can accept all payments using QR readers..

Question 3: Appraise and discuss how a well-regulated payment system will enable the Singapore financial market to perform its functions effectively. (30 marks)