SINGAPORE, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bank of China (BOC) on Wednesday launched in Singapore its first global innovation lab, which will conduct research and development and showcase its cutting-edge technologies and latest innovations, according to the BOC Singapore Branch.
The new lab, called the Bank of China Innovation Lab (Singapore), is the first-of-its-kind set up by BOC Group across the globe. Its establishment marks a definitive step of BOC towards a world-class bank in the new era, said the BOC Singapore Branch in a media release.
BOC's President Liu Liange said the bank, in the 82 years since it entered into Singapore, has witnessed the city-state's evolution into a leading financial center, and its government's drive towards FinTech and innovation.
"The Bank of China Innovation Lab (Singapore) marks a new milestone in our journey in Southeast Asia as we lead the future with technology from Asia's FinTech hub, Singapore," he said. "We will combine our banking expertise with the culture of innovation that permeates our bank and adroitly apply FinTech to deliver relevant financial services in an ever-changing and volatile world. "
With BOC Innovation Labs around the world, the Chinese bank will enable accelerated innovation of financial products and technologies and respond faster to market trends, Liu added.
According to the BOC Singapore Branch, the new lab will "spearhead and manage regional and global R&D activities, establish a training structure to build a pipeline of talents, and foster financial innovation and research collaborations with partners such as FinTech firms, higher education institutions and governmental organizations.
Established in 1936, the BOC Singapore Branch holds the Qualifying Full Bank License (QFB) in Singapore. It is one of the Chinese financial institutions who concluded two milestone agreements with their Singaporean counterparts this week.
The BOC Singapore Branch told Xinhua that it joined hands with China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) also on Wednesday to ink a cooperative agreement, which enables the launch of the CFETS-BOC Traded Bond Indices on SGX, the first exchange to distribute the CFETS-BOC Traded Bond Indices outside of China. The Bond Indices were designed by CFETS and BOC, and it tracks the movements of the Chinese bond market and can be used by investors to benchmark their Chinese bond portfolio performance.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Wednesday that the launch of the Bond Indices can catalyse the development of tradable China bond products and facilitate greater investments into China's bond market by international investors.
Liu said Singapore, as one of the most important global financial center in the world, has been proactively supporting RMB internationalization. He believes the financial cooperation is the key part of bilateral cooperation between China and Singapore, and has a huge potential. "The financial cooperation between the two countries plays a significant role in promoting their economic and trade contact, and supporting regional economic growth, " he added.
The other milestone agreement concluded by financial institutions from China and Singapore is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between China Union Pay International (UPI) and Singaporean cashless payment company NETS. The two signed the MOU to support cross-border connection of their mobile wallets. (Contributed by Li Xiaoyu, edited by Niu Huizhe)
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