Regulators in India and Singapore have signed an agreement to promote collaboration on financial technology.

Under the fintech cooperation agreement signed last week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) of India will seek to leverage each other’s existing regulatory sandbox. 

This means Singaporean companies that have already joined the MAS regulatory sandbox may be referred to IFSCA’s sandbox to test their use cases in India, and vice versa.

“The cooperation agreement will also allow MAS and IFSCA to evaluate the suitability of use cases which could benefit from collaboration across multiple jurisdictions, and invite relevant jurisdictions to participate in a global regulatory sandbox,” the regulators say in a joint statement.

In addition, the regulators will share “non-supervisory related” information and developments on innovation in financial products and services, while also facilitating discussions on emerging fintech issues and participating in joint innovation projects.

Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of MAS, says the agreement builds on an existing memorandum of understanding on supervisory cooperation signed by MAS and IFSCA in July this year. 

“The cross-border testing of use cases between Singapore and India will pave the way for operationalizing a broader collaboration framework for fintech use cases involving multiple jurisdictions,” Mohanty adds. 

Joseph Joshy, IFSCA’S chief technology officers, calls the latest agreement “a watershed moment” that will build a fintech bridge between the two countries, serving as a launch pad for Indian fintech companies to Singapore and for Singaporean peers to India.

“The possibility of global collaboration on suitable use cases through a global regulatory sandbox is an exciting opportunity for the fintech ecosystem,” Joshy adds.