Singapore raised its three-year fintech support budget by 46.7% today (Monday). The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) committed S$220 million (about $173 million) through FSTI 4.0 to support AI, distributed ledger and quantum technology projects.

The commitment is 46.7% above the S$150 million allocated to FSTI 3.0, which covered 2023 through 2026. MAS has now pledged S$845 million across four phases since launching the scheme in 2015.

Financial institutions and Singapore-based fintech firms can receive up to 50% of qualifying project costs, capped at S$1 million for 24 months. That puts public funding behind technologies that brokers are already moving into core operations, including onboarding, research and risk management.

AI Projects Get a Separate Funding Track

The Institution Project track covers AI, distributed ledger technology and quantum technology. Routine upgrades do not qualify. MAS also excludes projects developed primarily outside Singapore.

A separate AI Pathfinder track will reimburse 50% of qualifying costs for market-tested products listed on PathFin.ai; support is capped at S$200,000 with a Singapore-based AI fintech and S$100,000 when the provider is based elsewhere.

The local-provider cap is twice as high. At the retail end of the market, Singapore-based Syfe added an AI stock-discovery tool to its brokerage in July.

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Projects have six months to go live. Eligible costs include consulting, software infrastructure and an external auditor’s certification.

The subsidy runs alongside MAS work on controls for autonomous financial systems. FinanceMagnates.com reported in July that the regulator and a consortium of financial firms had started developing governance standards for AI agents.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said the measures would “help our financial institutions, fintech firms, and workers innovate, scale,” according to CNA. Gan is also Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry and chairman of MAS.

Shared Infrastructure Can Receive 70% Support

Industry-wide infrastructure and platform projects can receive up to 70% of qualifying expenses for 24 months; eligible costs include salaries, professional services, hardware, software, equipment and intellectual property rights.

The Center of Excellence track will subsidize manpower costs for specialized functions; MAS will cover up to 50% for Singapore citizens and 25% for other hires, including permanent residents, for 24 months.

That track also covers non-manpower expenses at up to 50%. MAS identified AI, quantum computing and digital assets as target areas after earlier work on cross-border tokenization and market infrastructure.

Finalists in the Global FinTech Hackcelerator can apply for as much as S$500,000 under a new scale-up grant. MAS says finalists have raised more than S$3.8 billion since the scheme began, but it did not provide the period or methodology behind that total.

Budget Rebounds From FSTI 3.0

The first FSTI phase committed S$225 million over five years. MAS increased the pool to S$250 million for the three years through 2023, when the program helped smaller financial institutions move to remote working during the pandemic.

Funding then fell to S$150 million under FSTI 3.0. That was S$50 million a year. The annualized FSTI 4.0 budget is about S$73.3 million, below the S$83.3 million pace of FSTI 2.0.

MAS says the program has supported more than 350 projects and established over 30 Centers of Excellence since 2015. Its latest phase replaces the earlier ESG fintech focus with a dedicated route for deploying market-ready AI products.

Internship Portal Targets 1,000 Placements

The sixth funding route will reimburse 80% of an intern’s monthly stipend, capped at S$1,000 a month for up to 12 months.

The target is at least 1,000 placements over three years through a portal run by the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA). CNA cited an SFA talent report that identified shortages in AI, data science, cybersecurity and cloud architecture.

The regulator puts Singapore’s fintech sector at more than 1,800 firms and close to 10,000 professionals. It also reported S$2.9 billion of fintech investment during 2025 without disclosing how it calculated the figure.

An earlier Accenture estimate put Singapore fintech fundraising at $453 million in the first half of 2019. The figures are not directly comparable because the new MAS release provides no methodology.

Internships must last at least three months and carry defined learning outcomes. Funding is paid after completion, and each firm is limited to 10 supported interns per calendar year.

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.FinTechRead More

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