The devastating effects of COVID-19 has disrupted businesses across all sectors. Like many others, financial institutions and fintech businesses have been forced to work remotely and embrace digital changes to keep teams working efficiently to ensure business resilience.

Fortunately, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a S$125 million support package for eligible businesses across Singapore. In particular, the Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) will help ensure smaller financial institutions and fintechs can navigate the current situation, and build stronger competencies, skills, and networks to emerge stronger in the long term.

What is the Digital Acceleration Grant?

The Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) is a S$35 million scheme that aims to support digitalisation efforts in financial institutions and FinTech firms.

The DAG will help eligible firms adopt digital solutions to improve business productivity, efficiency, risk management, operational resilience, or customer service, including the implementation of digital tools such as cloud-based workforce management, video conferencing systems, and digital collaboration apps.

The DAG scheme will have two distinct tracks:

1. The Institution Project track: supports 80% of qualifying expenses for the adoption of digital solutions by smaller firms, up to a cap of S$120,000 per entity, over the duration of the scheme
2. The Industry Pilot track: supports 80% of qualifying expenses for the adoption of digital solutions by multiple firms collaborating together, up to a cap of S$100,000 per participating firm per project.

What are the benefits of going digital?

Fintech businesses and financial institutions are traditionally known for their adaptability. They were the first to transition to paperless solutions, cashless technology, and remote work adoption using cloud-based software. So naturally it’s easy to see that this sector is already capable of large shifts towards improvement.

Roubler’s all-in-one cloud-based workforce management software can help your fintech business continue to be at the forefront of resilience and innovation by helping you manage a remote workforce with a full suite of digital features.

Enjoy an enterprise-level HR and payroll platform that will also help you manage team communications with the built-in document library feature, as well as empower team members to learn and upskill from anywhere using the built-in eLearning feature.

What businesses are eligible to apply?

Businesses applying under the Institution Project track must be Singapore-based financial institutions or fintechs certified by the Singapore FinTech Association with under 200 employees, adopting digital solutions for at least six months. Businesses can claim for expenses incurred from 1 Feb 2020 for a maximum period of one year.

Businesses applying under the Industry Pilot track must be a minimum group of three Singapore-based financial institutions with a joint headcount of under 200 employees, adopting digital solutions for at least one year. Businesses can claim for project expenses up to two years from implementation.

What solutions are eligible for funding?

The solutions must not be built from scratch nor require investment in heavy infrastructure (e.g. servers), and should fall into one or more of these categories:

• Cloud services
• Communication and collaboration tools
• Compliance & KYC tools (including transaction monitoring tools)
• Customer relationship and engagement tools (including digital customer onboarding)
• Data-related services (including data warehousing, data automation, data analytics)
• Enterprise services (including HR and accounting systems)
• Marketing productivity tools (including customer sensing tools, insights generation)
• Office productivity tools
• Project management, software development and testing tools
• Security-related solutions
• Solutions to support alternative working arrangements, operational resilience, and BCP.

How can my business apply?

Businesses applying under the Institution Project track can submit their application form to fintech_office@mas.gov.sg

Each participating business applying under the Industry Pilot track can submit their application form to fintech_office@mas.gov.sg at least two months before the commencement of the project.