The Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) and Mastercard have agreed to collaborate on strengthening cybersecurity in the city-state’s financial services sector.

According to a memorandum of understanding ( MoU ) signed in Singapore on Tuesday ( April 9 ), the strategic partnership will focus on:

• Bilateral information sharing of cyber threat intelligence to raise cyber situational awareness in the financial services sector;
• Joint analysis of the latest cyber threats impacting the financial services sector to produce actionable insights and recommendations on possible countermeasures; and
• Competency-building activities, such as joint cybersecurity exercises, staff training and study visits.

“With a constantly evolving cyber threat landscape and rapid digitalization of financial services globally, close public-private partnership between key financial sector players is essential to engendering cyber resilience of the financial ecosystem,” says Vincent Loy, MAS assistant managing director for technology. I am glad that this MoU between MAS and Mastercard will contribute towards this outcome and help advance cybersecurity capacity building."

Ari Sarker, Mastercard’s Asia-Pacific president, adds: “Amid escalating cyber threats in today’s connected economy, the need for cyber security has never been more acute. It’s not about securing a device or a network anymore; it’s about securing the entire ecosystem, for today and tomorrow.”