STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Developing Singapore into a World-Class Financial Center

Developing Singapore into a

World-Class Financial Center
The 5 Cs of Entrepreneurship
By
Tay Kok Chin
kctay@sbf.biz
Director (Technology)
SBF Entrepreneurship Development Centre Pte Ltd.
9th September 2005

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
This article is based on the panel discussion in the recent Institute of Banking and
Finance (IBF) Singapore 30th Anniversary and the official launch of the Financial
Industry Competency Standards (FICS) at the InterContinental Hotel Singapore
on Friday 2nd September 2005. It is supposed to be a closed-session without
media involvement.
Hence, this article is under strict and controlled circulation. It is meant to be used
for internal discussions by invited participants (including the author) to this IBF
event. It will also be used as a discussion paper with selected partners to bring
the Financial Center of Excellence a reality. No part of this article may be copied
or shared with others without the written permission from the author. A different
version without reference to this IBF/FICS launch will be written for publication in
the Straits Times at a later date.

Disclaimer
This article expresses the personal views of the author. It does not represent the
views of any of the organizations associated with the author, including SBF
Entrepreneurship Development Centre Pte. Ltd., Association of Corporate
Treasurers (Singapore), Singapore Institute of Management and KESDEE Inc.
The author will not be held liable for any errors, inaccuracies or damages done
on the readers actions taken based on this article.

TAY Kok Chin 9th September 2005

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Background
Last Friday, 2nd September 2005, the whos who in the Singapore financial industry
attended the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore 30th Anniversary and
the official launch of the Financial Industry Competency Standards (FICS) at the
InterContinental Hotel Singapore. I was invited as the Singapore representative of a
US-based financial e-learning solutions provider, an IBF F-Next partner.
Being an entrepreneur with technology background, besides representing this elearning solutions provider (KESDEE Inc.), my other hats include managing the
Secretariat for the Association of Corporate Treasurers (Singapore) ACT(S), a parttime lecturer of E-Commerce and Information Technology (IT) courses for the
University of London undergraduates at the Singapore Institute of Management
(SIM), and most recently, the founder of the Business Online Network and Dialogue
(BOND) for SBF Entrepreneurship Development Centre Pte. Ltd.
During the panel discussion on Developing Singapore as a Centre for World-Class
Financial Talent, when asked about whats lacking in Singapore, Ms Euleen Goh,
the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore and chairperson of the FICS Main
committee replied with 3 Cs, namely confidence, courage and creativity. Mr Ong
Chong Tee, the Deputy Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore
(MAS) commented on the lack of globally minded and travelled Singaporean
(based in Singapore) and Mr Ong Ye Kung, the Chief Executive of the Singapore
Workforce Development Agency (WDA) highlighted the unstructured adult
training in the market.
The reality is, would someone with world-class financial talent be in Singapore if
Singapore is not a world-class Financial Center? Allow me to offer my 5 Cs of
entrepreneurship to further develop Singapore into a world-class Financial Center,
expanding on the 3 Cs raised by Ms Euleen Goh.

The 5 Cs of Entrepreneurship
1. Commitment to achieve a certain goal, one must have commitment. Hence, if
Singapore is to achieve its goal as a world-class Financial Center, every
stakeholder in the financial industry must be committed to that vision, and take
concrete steps.
2. Confidence the inner strength required to pursue any task, big or small and
learning along the way every time.
3. Courage the gung-ho spirit the willingness to take the risks and the ability to
swallow any consequences and try again.
4. Creativity the innovative approach to tackle any situation, being able to think
out-of the box, and be unconventional.
5. Covey developing the essential habits from Stephen Coveys book on the 7
Habits of Highly Effective People.
Each of these will be explained in detail with specific actions described later.

TAY Kok Chin 9th September 2005

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Creating an Ecosystem for the Financial Center of Excellence

For any industry to thrive and survive there must be an ecosystem of stakeholders
whose very livelihood depends on others. Its the same for the financial industry (see
figure 1 below). Quite often, when we talk about the financial industry, we usually
refer to the banking institutions, the insurance companies, the regulator (MAS) and
the Singapore Exchange. These organizations represent the sell-side and service
providers. This, however, is only one side of the picture.
In any business, the sell-side is only there to serve the buy-side. With only four
million people to serve, the consumer (or retail) business will be limited and will only
be a small influence to help develop Singapore as a Financial Center. Hence the
banks (local or foreign banks located in Singapore) and service providers, must be
able to serve the corporate customers, especially the foreign multi-national
companies (MNCs) who would like to tap on the fast growing Asian market.
In order to facilitate and ensure close collaboration between the financial
stakeholders as depicted in the figure below, I believe Singapore should create a
Financial Center of Excellence whose primary objective is to develop Singapore as a
world-class Financial Center, consisting not only those mentioned (sell-side, service
providers and corporates), but will link up all the local and foreign industry groups.
Each stakeholder, by itself can only serve its own objectives. The banks are
answerable to their shareholders and will function according to the business ethics of
generating revenue and reducing business costs. Hence the trend for each
stakeholder would be to serve and be close to the market. This is indeed
understandable.

ABS

ACTS

MAS

IBF

ACIS

Bank

Local
Industry Groups

Banking Sector

Corporate

Financial
Centre of
Excellence

Corporate

IMF
WB
IGTA

Service
Provider

Service
Provider

International
Industry Groups

Figure 1 Ecosystem for the Financial Center of Excellence

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Group

Examples

Corporate

The local and foreign companies and multi-nationals (MNCs)

Banking Sector

The Local Authority (Monetary Authority of Singapore), local and

foreign banks

Service Providers

Technology providers, News providers and Ratings.

Local Industry Group

Association of Banks, Singapore (ABS), Institute of Bank and Finance

(IBF), ACI Singapore and ACT(S).

International Industry
Group

International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and

International Group of Treasury Associations (IGTA).

With the emergence of the Asian giants, namely China and India, many multinationals will therefore establish their operations and for some, regional
headquarters there. Hence, the Singapore Financial Center of Excellence will have
to use innovative ways to retain and perhaps draw more multi-nationals into
Singapore, leveraging on the strengths we already have and are famous for
namely, our excellent communication and technology infrastructure, good
governance, skilled workforce and international trade links and agreements,
amongst others.
So, what should the Financial Center of Excellence do? The Association of
Corporate Treasurers (Singapore) - ACTS, whose members are the finance and
treasury professionals of local and foreign multi-national companies will be an
integral part of this Financial Center of Excellence. Today, ACTS has already
embarked on a number of initiatives, working closely with the banks, service
providers and other stakeholders like MAS to help develop Singapore as a Financial
Center par excellence.
Through its regular (monthly) lunch and dinner talks, usually sponsored by its bank
partners and/or service providers, members and guests of ACTS are educated in the
latest and greatest of financial solutions, techniques and trends in the financial
industry. Since November 2004, ACTS has partnered with KESDEE a US-based elearning solutions provider, to offer world-class financial courses to its members.
ACTS hosts the annual EuroFinance conference in May each year in Singapore and
organizes its own annual conference, usually with another organization. This year,
ACTS will be co-organizing with ACI Singapore the Financial Markets Association, a
conference with the theme of Regional Financial and Treasury Centers
Perspectives on Operational Perspectives (see www.act.org.sg/events/2005FTC.htm
for details and registration).
In partnership with the Association of Corporate Treasurers (UK), ACTS has brought
the Certificate in International Cash Management (Cert ICM), a world renowned
professional certificate for finance professionals in Singapore.
In partnership with Treasury Management International (TMI) a UK-based
publication, the ACTS logo is now featured prominently on the cover page of its
Asian version (Asia-TMI), hoping to draw multi-nationals wanting to start in Asia to
work with ACTS, using Singapore as a base.

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Since March 2005, ACTS has formed the Financial Treasury Centre (FTC) subcommittee within ACTS consisting of its members of local and foreign MNCs. This FTC
sub-committee has recently completed an FTC survey highlighting the wish-list of
its members to be presented to MAS, so that MAS can provide additional incentives
or resources to keep the MNCs in Singapore and perhaps draw more MNCs into
Singapore thereby help position Singapore as a regional financial and treasury
centre.
ACTS is also a full member of the International Group of Treasury Associations (IGTA)
(www.igta.org), which allows ACTS to post its events and conferences on the IGTA
web site. Members of IGTA will then be aware of whats happening in Singapore
and will get to know Singapore as a result. This, I hope, will attract those who wish to
set up an operation in Asia to seriously consider Singapore as their base to serve the
Asian market, just like the many whod already done so.

Action for Committed Entrepreneurship (ACE)

Talk is cheap and easy. What is needed now is action. But committed action is
better, and it will cost in many ways, time and effort to plan, resources to execute
and the will to see it through. Our Prime Minister, in his national day speech has given
us his vision of a vibrant global city with the Marina Bay (consisting of the Business
and Financial Center) as the anchor and catalyst for this vision.
We need committed entrepreneurs in the major stakeholders (e.g. MAS, IBF, ABS,
banks, services providers and corporates) to develop Singapore further as the
regional (and global) Financial and Treasury Centre (FTC), with the establishment of
the Financial Center of Excellence.
It is one thing to highlight the attributes of what entrepreneurs need (we get lots of
them in the media these days) and a different thing to put them into action.
Perhaps, we should encourage more Singaporeans to pursue these 5 Cs:
1. Commitment financial institutions and corporates in Singapore are looking to
MAS (especially since it has created the Financial Sector Development
Department) to provide the vision and leadership to further develop Singapore
as a Financial Center. I believe MAS is working in that direction, but more could
be done, especially on the marketing aspects.
Not personally knowing fully what the government bodies and industry groups
are doing, I think MAS should seriously consider being actively involved (with
committed resources, time and effort) in local industry groups (especially those
with international links) which will enable MAS and other stakeholders to reach
out internationally.
This vision of the Financial Center of Excellence should also be consistently
communicated to oversea branches of MAS, Economic Board Development
(EDB), Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), International Enterprise (IE)
Singapore, and many more. These major stakeholders of Singapores very own
economic survival in the long run need to understand the importance of being
bench-marked against the worlds best, hence need to commit resources to the
Financial Center of Excellence.

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Whenever and wherever appropriate, these oversea branches should make a

point to highlight the Financial Center of Excellence, so as to provide tremendous
value to world-class institutions and corporations to set up in Singapore.
2. Confidence in the past, being colonized and under the authority of others, the
population at large grew to be subservient, that is to submit to others lest you
face undesirable consequences. Singapore recently celebrated its 40th
anniversary as an independent nation. From a third world to first world economy
with high living standard is no mean feat. However, there is much room for
improvement in the area of psychological and intellectual confidence of the
population.
We may not be the global Financial Centers like London or New York for many
years to come. This, however, does not mean we need not put the necessary
strategies to lay the foundation and do the groundwork to develop Singapore
into a world-class financial center within the next few decades. The major
stakeholders of the Singapore financial industry need to believe and be
confident that by working together, this is achievable over time.
3. Courage in his national day speech, PM Lee related a story of someone who
started a business in East Timor with the phrase ka-ka lai in Hokkien which is
translated to dare to do in English. Thats what being an entrepreneur is all
about the courage to do something even if there are unknown factors.
The educational system in Singapore, though great in terms of academic results,
has not being kind to those who failed. Academic results have been, and will be
(unfortunately) a measure of success in Singapore society. Recent initiatives by
the government to promote the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and the
polytechnics and the waiver of academic results at the Singapore Sports School
have given hope to those who may be weak academically, but may excel in
other aspects of life.
In order to develop Singapore as a world-class financial center there will
inevitably be hiccups and failures here and there. This is to be expected since we
are beginning to venture into areas where others have led the way, and into
areas that others have not gone.
In areas where no one has gone, it takes courage for employees of the major
stakeholders of the Singapore financial industry to challenge the norm in their
respective organizations. It would also take courage for the management
(especially those in foreign companies) based in Singapore to argue their
business case in front of their top management overseas.
4. Creativity this is an oft-talked about attribute when it comes to
entrepreneurship. We may have brought experts like Edward do Bono to give
lectures and workshops to educate our teachers for many years, so that they
hopefully can become creative, and teach our children to be creative.
Creativity, unfortunately, cannot be taught. It is more an art rather than science.

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What is really needed is the environment the environment that each society
provides to its population to dare to explore, to play and to interact with others
locally and internationally, thereby learning different ways of doing things.
In the financial industry, the competitive nature of business often mean that
finance professionals are driven by numbers and objectives and therefore would
not have the time and luxury to experiment and play in search of the best
solutions for buy-side or to meet their targets and objectives for the sell-side and
service providers
Hence, the Financial Center of Excellence, with dedicated resources would
undertake the task to seek for the best of financial solutions, techniques and
trends for the financial industry in Singapore. More importantly, it would also
undertake research to come up with innovation approaches and solutions not
only for the financial services sector, for other related sectors which is part and
parcel of the financial industry ecosystem.
5. Covey the book by Stephen R. Covey1 (1989), aptly named The 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People is a must-read for any would-be entrepreneurs. Allow me
to summarize these habits with respect to the financial industry and in particular,
the financial center of excellence.
Be Proactive this means to continually look for ways to do things on ones
initiative rather than being told. This can also mean to do things without being
paid so that one could learn new things. For many in the financial industry,
being inundated with too many emails and business objectives often mean one
has no time to be proactive for other things, let alone to seek new ways of doing
things. That being the case, perhaps it is now time to be proactive to overcome
this situation first so that one is in control, and then be proactive for other areas.
Begin with the End in Mind quite simply, our objective is to be a world-class
Financial Center, with the establishment of the Financial Center of Excellence.
Put First Things First examples have been given on what ACTS has done e.g. in
events and conferences in close collaboration with partners and service
providers, bringing globally recognized educational program into Singapore,
partnerships with global publications, conducting surveys and links with
international organization where appropriate.
Likewise, the Financial Center of Excellence would need to put in place a series
of different activities which would bring tremendous value to various stakeholders
in the financial industry.
Think Win/Win it is human nature wanting to win. It takes interpersonal
leadership and wisdom to bring about win-win in a two party relationship. For the
financial center of excellence to succeed, various win-win propositions and
agreements have to be in place so that every stakeholder would be willing to
participate.
1

Stephen R. Covey, 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, 1989.
ISBN 0-671-66398-4.

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Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood this habit emphasizes the need
for effective communication. Notwithstanding our desire to be a world-class
financial center, sensitivity to other stakeholders in the financial industry in
Singapore and globally, would help us gain emotional credits.
Synergize the ability to leverage the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of
every stakeholder in the financial industry, thereby allowing creative
cooperation.
Sharpen the Saw the need for continuous improvement in all areas to reinvent
ourselves should the balance of equation changes. The pursuit of excellence is a
never ending task.

Concluding Remarks
The definition of a world-class financial center is a subjective one. For some,
Singapore is already a world-class financial center and would argue that we are
already there and what we have in place is already sufficient and theres no need
for the Financial Center of Excellence.
Regardless of perception, what counts is reality. Market perception today is that
London, New York and Tokyo are the top financial centers of the world in terms of
numbers. This however does not equate to being world-class.
Many in the financial industry in Singapore reckon that we should fight to be the
fourth financial center to bring in the numbers for the financial institutions to
churn.
The reality is that, through the ACTS experience in hosting the EuroFinance regional
conference in Singapore annually for the past many years, we know that the
multinationals are gradually moving their operations out of Singapore. This also
implies the banks have less numbers to churn, and will gradually move more and
more functions out of Singapore as well.
In this article, I have emphasized the need for the financial industry to focus on the
buy-side in particular the foreign multi-nationals. While we may have to face reality
that there would be many amongst them that would still need to have their
operations in the emerging markets of China and India, we need to convince the
global financial industry that it is still possible to establish their regional and global
headquarters in Singapore, with the help of the Financial Center of Excellence.
To do that, we need committed entrepreneurship from all stakeholders in the
Singapore financial industry.

TAY Kok Chin 9th September 2005

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