Singapore's financial sector «did very well» in 2018, but growth will be slower in 2019, given its exposure to the external environment, MAS said in its annual report.

Singapore's financial sector, which grew 6.1 percent in 2018, is expected to slow in 2019, but should continue to outpace the overall economy, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said at the central bank's annual report media conference on Thursday.

He cited insurance, payment services, and fintech-related activities as areas he expects to thrive in the coming year but said prospects for financial intermediation are mixed because of the slowing Chinese economy weighing down credit demand, though this will be partly offset by loans to Southeast Asia. Growth in asset management will be «lackluster» because of falling market valuations and fee compression, he said.

Good Jobs for Singaporeans

The three-year average growth rate of financial services now stands at 4.1 percent, just shy of the Industry Transformation Map (ITM) target of 4.3 percent per annum for 2016–20, Menon said. He emphasized that MAS would continue to «promote innovation, harness technology, transform jobs, and upskill the workforce» to prepare the sector for an increasingly digital future.  

The number of jobs in financial services and fintech grew by 6,900 in 2018, driven mainly by the banking and insurance industries, and hiring this year remains healthy, with job growth on track to meet the ITM target of 4,000, Menon said.

He also said that MAS would «continue to closely partner the industry to make Singapore the leading global financial center in Asia, supporting the region’s growth and creating good jobs for Singaporeans.»

Net Profits Jump

MAS also said it made a net profit of S$19.2 billion ($14.17 billion) for the 2018/19 financial year, net of a S$3.9-billion contribution to the government's Consolidated Fund.

This figure, almost four times higher than last year's net profit of S$5.3 billion, was due to returns from investments of its official foreign reserves and currency effects – largely the Singapore dollar's depreciation against the U.S. dollar, Menon said.