The Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) will lead the collaboration between the Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) in using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data for scientific studies.
The EOS, as the NTU Singapore Research Centre of Excellence, provides researchers with access to GNSS data collected by SLA’s Singapore Satellite Positioning Reference Network (SiReNT), as well as to its archived historical data.
Leveraging NTU’s strengths in areas such as sustainability and earth sciences, this collaboration also provides us with valuable data to contextualise more accurate projections to augment Singapore’s climate change response.
– Associate Professor Emma Hill, Acting Chair, Asian School of the Environment and Principal Investigator, Earth Observatory of Singapore
Hill ackownledged that Singapore’s GNSS data from the past is very important for understanding how the land and coast have changed over time. Using precise positioning technology like SLA’s SiReNT can help with more than just positioning and mapping. It can also open a lot of new ways to deal with the increasingly complicated problems caused by climate and environmental changes.
With the combined knowledge of SLA and EOS, they want to use the rich historical data to co-create solutions for a new era of predicting and preparing for coastal and land changes to help Singapore deal with and lessen the effects of climate change.
The collaboration between NTU and SLA supports the university’s NTU 2025 strategic plan, which aspires to address humanity’s great issues on sustainability and speed the translation of academic discoveries into solutions that lessen the human effect on the environment.
Together with EOS’s development of new coastal GNSS reference stations in Singapore, this will enable research into more accurate methods of measuring land height and sea-level changes around the country, as well as the effect of the atmosphere on the weather and climate on the island nation.
GNSS refers to various satellite navigation systems, including the well-known Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be used by systems such as SLA’s SiReNT to produce precise positioning data with a 3 cm accuracy.
The NTU-SLA agreement will establish four-year cooperation that will contribute to the Centre for Climate Research Singapore’s National Sea Level Programme (NSLP), which is supported by the National Research Foundation and the National Environment Agency.
Furthermore, during the duration of the collaboration, EOS will analyse previous GNSS data provided by SLA in order to determine how certain places’ land height has changed. This would increase the accuracy of elevation measurements generated from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), the technique currently employed by NTU to map ground deformation over Singapore and other cities in the region.
In Singapore, EOS and SLA will deploy up to four additional coastal GNSS stations for data gathering to develop innovative approaches for monitoring both land height and sea-level changes. Additionally, they will be incorporated into the SiReNT infrastructure and services to maximise resource utilisation. Also, the existing SiReNT station data will be incorporated to assist this goal.
Simultaneously, EOS will study unique ways to use data from existing GNSS, such as investigating the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. By characterising the atmospheric processes that impact Singapore at different timeframes, scientists may determine where and when localised weather systems are likely to cause heavy precipitation.
EOS researchers will also attempt to employ GNSS data in regional meteorological studies. By comparing and analysing GNSS and meteorological data in detail, the scientists hope to gain a deeper understanding of precipitation and extreme weather events.
The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) and the AI Chip Center for Emerging Smart Systems (ACCESS) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently to jointly promote the R&D and industrialization of AI Chips, to further promote the development of AI chips in Hong Kong to the world’s cutting-edge level.
As the first research centre under the Hong Kong government’s InnoHK Clusters initiative to formally establish a partnership with ASTRI, ACCESS will jointly develop emerging AI chip technology and hardware-accelerated AI technology, and promote the transformation of advanced technology into products with ASTRI by converging their R&D expertise. Currently, the two parties are embarking on the first research project collaboration, which focuses on advancing the application development of customised AI chips in the field of AI Internet of Things (AI-IoT).
ASTRI has been committed to promoting technological R&D in Hong Kong and partnering with different institutions and companies in developing innovative technologies. ASTRI’s researchers have devoted themselves to the R&D of next-generation AI technology and the design and application of AI chips for several years.
In its partnership with ACCESS, ASTRI will be able to directly apply the results of basic research, and transfer AI chip technology and solutions to the industry through mid-stream applied research, helping the development of AI and Innovation and Technology (I&T) industries in Hong Kong, and enabling integrated circuit technology to sublime to another realm.
The Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI stated that one of the missions of ASTRI is to transfer professional technology and R&D to the industry to benefit the entire technological research industry in Hong Kong, and the promotion of this work is in line with the purpose of establishment of InnoHK. He added that the first project has officially commenced since the establishment of the platform, bringing AI chip technology to different fields. The R&D of different technologies among ASTRI, ACCESS, and other units in the future to bring more cutting-edge technologies to Hong Kong is highly anticipated.
With initial funding of HK$443.9 million from the Hong Kong government’s InnoHK, ACCESS was founded by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in collaboration with research with Stanford University, The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, sought to realise ubiquitous AI applications in society seeking to create AI chips that are much faster and more energy-efficient than that of existing solutions.
Meanwhile, the Vice-President for Research and Development of HKUST and Center Director of ACCESS stated that the Center has a world-leading team of interdisciplinary experts. Since its establishment more than a year ago, it has conducted several types of research in the fields of applied hardware joint design, computing-in-memory, as well as smart sensors and AI-IoT and made technological breakthroughs.
In setting up this long-term cooperation with ASTRI, the Center can leverage its technical foundation and industry channels in AI technology applied research and AI chip solutions to transform these international collaborative research results into AI products more quickly, thereby achieving an efficient I&T development model from basic research to application. According to research, the global artificial intelligence chip market size is expected to reach US$ 194.90 billion by 2030 from US$ 8.02 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 37.41% from 2021 to 2030.
Artificial intelligence (AI) helps to eliminate or minimise the risk to human life across a variety of industries. Moreover, the need for more efficient systems for solving mathematical and computational problems has become crucial, as the volume of data has increased.
In the National Postal Development Strategy, approved by the Deputy Minister in May, the government aims to give all households in the country digital addresses by 2025. The strategy intends to make the postal industry an essential element of the country’s digital economy infrastructure by making it a foundation for e-commerce, a press release has stated.
By 2025, the strategy also plans to have all farmer households function on e-commerce platforms developed by postal companies. The postal industry consists of a network of over 21,600 points covering communes and 63 provinces and cities, with nearly 800 enterprises operating in the industry. By 2030, the postal and delivery industry could reach annual revenue of US$10 billion, given the current growth rate of around 20-30% per year. Completing the digital address platform, in line with the national digital map init is important for the development of e-commerce and the digital economy, the release stated.
The Ha Noi People’s Committee has issued a plan to carry out a pilot implementation of the national digital address platform associated with the digital map programme in the capital city. It will be initially piloted in the Hoang Mai, Hoan Kiem, Nam Tu Liem, Dong Anh, and Thach That districts. Services that use digital addresses would also be piloted, including tourism, fire prevention and fighting, and postal services.
The postal infrastructure, coupled with telecommunications infrastructure, electronic payment methods, and digital addresses would develop e-commerce and expand the market for postal services. In rural areas, this would accelerate the digital agricultural economy and enable residents to access public services more easily. According to a report by the Vietnam E-Commerce Association, the e-commerce market could expand at an average of 29% every year to reach US$52 billion by 2025. By the same year, Vietnam targets that the volume of mobile payment transactions will grow by 50-80% while transaction value will surge by 80%-100% annually. It also aims for at least 80% of the population aged 15 and above to have bank accounts, the number of Internet payments to increase by 35%-40% annually, and the rate of individuals and organisations using cashless payments to reach 40%.
A representative from the Department of Posts noted that the drastic change in the postal and e-commerce markets along with technological advancements have transformed business procedures and created new opportunities for the postal industry. The huge volume of goods traded on online channels led to an explosive demand for delivery services. This enabled the postal industry to move from delivering newsletters to setting a foundation for e-commerce development, an essential pillar of the digital economy.
The postal industry plays a role in ensuring the smooth flow of not only data but goods in the digital economy. Over the past few years, the industry has witnessed a melding of old and new. Traditional postal companies, which were slow to renovate were losing market share to younger, tech-driven start-ups. This forced the postal industry to transform itself into a digital supply network.
Postal enterprises develop in the direction of becoming enterprises that apply digital technologies to create new products and services and ensure people have the right to access quality postal services at reasonable prices. The strategy will focus on building a Made-in-Vietnam ecosystem of digital platforms, including digital addresses and e-commerce platforms.
Scientists from Lehigh University, with help from the U.S. National Science Foundation, used bone imaging to study how fractures rebuild and model the mechanical properties of healing bone. This helped them make progress on making a virtual biomechanical test that measures how well fractures are healing.
You need to come up with some way to treat callus differently when modelling healing bone. But the mechanical properties of callus still aren’t well understood.
A callus is a heterogeneous tissue, containing multiple values for density and stiffness. Inglis added that the goal is to save patients time, money, and irritation and the model could help doctors better treat bone fractures and diagnose non-union, which occurs during failed mending fractures.
The study describes how the healing zone, which consists of a mixture of soft and hard tissue, determines the mechanical rigidity of the entire bone. Previous models failed to effectively differentiate between bone and callus, the semi-soft material that forms a temporary bridge between fragmented bone fragments, resulting in skewed evaluations of the healing process.
According to the researchers, this approach will account for the variable densities and stiffness of mending bone, resulting in more realistic models. The group employed a model that differentiates between bone and soft tissue.
Once the model has been validated against what was done on a bench test, it can begin to predict various aspects of bone healing behaviour. The more people understand why the healing process fails, the better their chances of developing a tool that will one day help surgeons. As a result, this model provides them with a foothold in translating the work into the clinic.
The development of a clinically relevant, reliable, scalable, non-invasive bone healing test could have a significant impact on the treatment of non-union fractures. Detecting problems with bone healing sooner would allow for earlier intervention when necessary, and potentially better outcomes for the most vulnerable patients.
The problem of material modelling in fracture callus is a major barrier to clinical translation of image-based virtual mechanical testing for addressing this need. Callus is an inherently transient material that lasts only a few months in a living organism before being remodelled. Because the mechanical properties of callus cannot be studied in human cadavers, the understanding of its material mechanics and structural organisation must rely heavily on observations from large animals.
Furthermore, the study’s findings show that the material properties of the tissues in the callus region of ovine long bones are not monolithic and should not be treated as such. This idea resonates strongly with histomorphometric data, which show subzones of different compositions within fracture callus and mineralisation gradients that develop in both space and time.
The dual-zone or piecewise material model used in this study aids in two ways in capturing callus heterogeneity. For starters, it recognises that where the callus contains bone, this tissue should be modelled locally as bone. Second, the dual-zone material model recognises that in early or slow healing, fibrous and cartilaginous soft tissues may constitute a significant portion of the healing zone.
The findings of this study confirm that soft tissues within the callus are not simply low-density bone in terms of structural mechanics. This can be deduced from the fact that assigning their mechanical properties using a bone-derived radiodensity scaling law results in a systematic over-prediction of limb rigidity.
Jawbone reconstruction – or orthognathic surgery – is a complicated medical procedure whereby a person’s jaw is treated for significant trauma, such as from a car crash or gunshot wound, or diseases like oral cancer. This surgery involves replacing damaged or diseased bone tissue with an implant, typically a titanium plate or prosthesis, with patient recovery taking as long as twelve weeks. Complications like implant failure and infections are common, potentially requiring repeat surgery which can place a significant burden on a patient.
In recent years, biomedical engineers have developed a new generation of medical implants designed to not only substitute bone but to help regenerate tissue back to its original state using 3D-printed tissue scaffold-fixation systems. These devices enhance the innate healing potential of human tissue, using a scaffold as a temporary support structure for the surrounding cells to attach to and grow. Eventually, the scaffold is expected to dissolve into the bloodstream, leaving new tissue in its place.
Currently, a PhD student in the University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Ben Ferguson, is developing a surgical planning tool to assist surgeons in planning complex jawbone reconstruction procedures using these new-generation devices. Using advanced computational technology and decision-making algorithms, the tool works by generating a ‘digital twin’ of the patient using CT scan data. It then rapidly simulates different designs of the implant before 3-D printing the final, optimal design, allowing surgeons to perform a digital ‘rehearsal’ before theatre.
Mr Ferguson, who is due to submit his PhD in September, stated, “Nowadays, it would be unthinkable to construct a building without running an engineering simulation on it beforehand. This is the industry standard in civil engineering – the same expectation should be applied to surgery on a human being.”
He also noted that the jaw is a complex area – required to talk, eat, chew and perform tasks that require both finesse and strength. Because of its complexity, the aim is to provide orthognathic surgeons with the best tools so they are set up for success – hopefully reducing repeat surgeries and improving patient outcomes.
The surgical planning tool combines computer-aided design (CAD) tools with high-fidelity computer-aided engineering models and optimisation algorithms that can accurately simulate the medical device while under physiological load. In addition to pre-surgical planning, this simulation data can also assist the surgeon in optimising the medical device’s design, helping them resolve issues that inevitably arise when designing a device that must meet multiple design and medical objectives, according to Professor Qing Li, Mr Ferguson’s supervisor.
The whole process is predicated on a delicate balance. For example, an implant may need to mechanically stimulate the surrounding tissue to enhance healing, but mechanical stimulation may then increase the risk of implant failure. Our algorithms and data-driven approach help surgeons develop an optimal design without having to rely solely on intuition, the Professor said.
The researchers have recently partnered with Professor Jonathan Clark AM, Chair of Head and Neck Cancer Reconstructive Surgery at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse to help translate the new technology into a clinical reality.
Professor Clark stated that Australia has been a leader in jaw reconstruction since Dr Ian Taylor’s 1974 breakthrough mandibular reconstruction. Since then, jaw reconstruction has evolved substantially: digital tools have been incorporated into pre-surgery planning, allowing surgeons to create more precise devices, with better aesthetic and functional outcomes for patients.
This tool and data provide the opportunity to evolve the technology beyond form as well as to also include biomechanical modelling, which can help predict the bone tissue’s response to physiological loads, Professor Jonathan Clark stated.
This kind of analysis – termed CT-based finite element modelling – will be of great importance as we move away from using the patient’s bone for reconstruction and start to incorporate customised scaffolds in the future.
Financial institutions can incur losses in a variety of ways and these risks are becoming more complex as technology advances. With the growth of the digital enterprise, banks face challenges in maintaining data quality and security, as well as making data-driven decisions, because they deal with a vast amount of partially structured and unstructured data points.
Almost all risk management strategies are based on awareness and transparency. While data collection and analytics tools are now widely available, organisations still struggle to integrate several sources of data and outdated infrastructure to determine the best course of action.
To ease their digital transition, banks should shift from manual to automated, information-driven, real-time systems with the right partners and technologies. However, banks must have system design and controls in place to address the numerous operational and security risks associated with digital banking.
The OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight held on 09 June 2022 focused on how to thrive in the digital banking environment to maintain its competitiveness and security and offer the best customer experience possible.
Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia believes that business security breaches are making headlines emphasising data fragility and the absence of effective security policies in organisations of all sizes.
Data security is vital in both private and government sectors, and everything from financial data to employee information must be safeguarded. One’s reputation and finances could be harmed if one’s security is breached.
“As the pandemic spread around the world over the past years, most organisations have made it a top priority to manage their operations or services remotely. A lot of employees and employers have to adjust to the new normal of working from home,” observes Mohit. “As more individuals go cashless and more digital options are offered, activities and transactions are increasingly taking place online.”
With the rise of digitalisation, cybersecurity threats have also increased substantially. The fundamental goal of cybersecurity in digital banking is to protect the interests of its customers, their staff and their reputation.
Mohit opines that digital banking security must become far more robust and comprehensive because the banking industry has become increasingly susceptible to cyber strikes with the wider attack surface online transactions provide.
He acknowledged that an increasingly complicated digital workplace demands leaders who can foster an agile attitude to achieve long-term success. With the assistance of the right partnerships, banks and other financial institutions may be able to achieve flawless cybersecurity that does not expose their clients’ data and funds.
Mike Hooper, Director, Digital Transformation (APAC), OpenText spoke on how to empower people and processes with a holistic approach to technology. He explained that people and processes will be more effective if they are provided with the information they require.
“A successful transformation should focus on establishing digital agility,” Mike states. “The ability to foresee and respond to rapidly changing situations is at the forefront of most business leaders’ minds considering tremendous technological advances and an increasingly disruptive operating environment.”
What is important for banks is satisfying their customers’ needs by ensuring a uniform banking experience regardless of platform or channel. In the future, financial institutions will need to determine the role of each entity.
Financial institutions must manage digital risk, enhance customer experience, transform their businesses to become future-ready and create a more resilient financial services ecosystem. They may have to rethink business models and alter customer relationships using digital technology and procedures.
Compliance with digital banking services must be prioritised to ensure that banks and other financial institutions can detect any fraudulent actions and continue to provide their services.
Banks and other financial institutions have made substantial investments in their services and products, and they must stay as close as possible to the emerging and latent demands of their clients. Even governments need to ensure the security of their digital transactions by taking a comprehensive picture of clients and services.
Both the private and public sectors can use metadata to better comprehend documents, and its archiving is the key to accessing the information. A partnership is the best solution for privacy protection.
Through Core for Federated Compliance, which provides cross-repository visibility and policy control for transparency and defensibility of organisational information governance processes and reporting, OpenText can assist any organisation in scaling up their current system without compromising the old one.
Digital Dialogue: Experts on Regulations Strategies in Digital Banking
In the next session Mohit engaged in an in-depth conversation with Nishy Ramos, First Vice President, IT Solutions Delivery, BDO Unibank and Dr David R. Hardoon, Chief Data and AI Officer, Union Bank of the Philippines.
Digital banking specialists have been brought in to examine how technology may help reduce the danger and cost of uncontrolled data while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Mohit invited the guests to share their opinions on the outlook of digital transformation from their perspective. The discussion centred around regulation plans, from a strategic standpoint, as well as the use of tools or technology by IT specialists from the banking sector.
According to Nishy Ramos, First Vice President, IT Solutions Delivery, BDO Unibank, it is critical to perform proactive interactions and understand where the organisation is heading and collaborate closely with an internal team.
She believes that understanding the customers’ demands digitally and employing technology is important for a bank, government or any industry, “We study our customer’s profile this helps us to understand their needs.”
The main issue that most firms face is that risk managers do not always understand data, and data managers do not always understand risk. These companies are giving their employees access to a more holistic approach to data management through data or knowledge portals. Instead of wasting time trying to make sense of vast amounts of disparate data, users can gain more accurate and timely insights.
Furthermore, as the world remains in the grips of the pandemic, the significance of holistic digital services in banking becomes clearer, which has further strengthened the case for why conversational banking is the game-changer in digital consumer engagement.
“Every organisation takes a different approach, but the most important is centralisation. It is the ability to comprehend your clients.” According to Dr David R. Hardoon, Chief Data and AI Officer, Union Bank of the Philippines. “Sharing is caring! Leveraging the skills from other experiences will strengthen the industry and can boost the digital economy.”
Banks and other financial institutions must continuously assess and manage cyber risks by monitoring their organisational information systems and operational environments. This will help to verify compliance, determine the effectiveness of risk response measures, and identify risk-impacting changes.
In addition to being compliant and supervised by regulatory agencies, data “centralisation is the key”, creating metadata that may benefit organisations in constructing an ecosystem.
Moreover, transparency both internally and publicly must be improved by clearly defined firm spending standards, which include pre-set thresholds for teams and individual employees. It also demands trust and accountability, as well as empowering people to take control of how they spend for the organisation.
Technology centralisation must be implemented and to improve security and cost, the banking industry must test cloud-based services and deploy testing tools. Big data analytics is used by banks to create customer-centric and customer-driven solutions. Because big data is synonymous with massive amounts of data, ensuring the app’s scalability and security is crucial.
Following the informative presentations, delegates engaged in interactive dialogues aided by polling questions. Through live audience interaction, participation, and the sharing of real-life experiences, this is intended to provide participants with professional learning and growth.
Delegates had the opportunity to learn from subject matter experts, exchange their experiences and bring back methods to their organisations.
The first poll asked the delegates what their top priority is when choosing the right technology. A majority (47%) went with providing the ability to consolidate information sources and reduce architecture complexity and costs. Just over a quarter (28%) indicated they adopt technology that supports business data – creation, management, delivery and analysis processes (28%) while a fourth (25%) support the creation of a holistic view of Information (Structured, Unstructured and Paper) across the organisation.
Clarence Goh, Senior Vice President, Head of Process Development & Data Management, HSBC Singapore said that it is a holistically view if they combine with the appropriate partners and serve their clients better. He also believes in the centralisation of digital space. Tawan Jitavech, Chief, Technology Officer, Kasikornbank concurred with this perspective.
Kok Foong Lee, Senior Vice President, Technology and Operations, DBS Bank said various organisations have different needs and agreed on the importance of centralising digital space. Gaurav Gupta, Senior Vice President, Head of IT Audit Management and IT Regulatory Management, United Overseas Bank said digitisation improves the economy.
Fransiscus Kaurrany, Executive, Chief Architect Officer, Bank Central Asia agreed that it is all about priority and execution and making sure that the technology they are using is appropriate for their organisations. He cited that people is the most important to them because they are the one who will choose the technology.
On what their IT department’s most important priority is, about 42% said that building more resilient infrastructure and enabling enterprise-wide business capability was a priority. Over a quarter (28%) chose to better innovation and agility through digital maturity while 14% went with digital record-keeping to better support government legislation and improve and reduce maintenance costs.
For Joko Christianto, Head of IT Strategic Planning & Development Division, PT Bank Tabungan Negara documentation is important. Robert Malabao, Section Head, Internal Audit Analytics, BDO Unibank, Inc., believes that technology can hasten the development of a more robust business future.
Andrew Ooi, Head of Disaster Risk Recovery, CIMB Bank Singapore shared that innovation is the key to being successful in their industry. Wei Ling Tan, Senior Data Scientist, Maybank felt that employees’ experiences are important for her because the people will utilise technology effectively if they have the right skill set.
Johan Suparto, Head of Business Automation System, PT Bank Mega Finance is convinced that infrastructure is most important since customers would leave if they are unsatisfied with the products. Zafirah Muhamad Zulkapley, Head, IT Audit, Bank Rakyat shared that they aim to move forward and find the whole balance in the digital ecosystem.
Merlyn Nuguid Section Head, Information System Audit BDO Unibank, Inc. mentioned that businesses need to be very competitive with the other organisations’ Infrastructure and there is a high demand to scale up to digital maturity.
Looking for the key challenge delegates face when managing change in data/business requirements, over a third (36%) felt that employee skillsets were an issue, The next two issues were a lack of flexibility/agility and data governance framework in current systems (26%) and a reluctance to consider or adopt new technologies (21%). The remaining 15% were concerned about the time involved in making changes.
Jittrakorn Juthakan, Head of Cybersecurity/ Chief Information Security Officer, HSBC Thailand said that data is a major challenge for them, but they are confident in employee skill sets since individuals will work for the company.
The Breakfast Insight concluded with remarks from Randy Goh, Regional Vice President, Southeast Asia OpenText, who believes that the lack of communication and shared understanding between data and risk teams is a big barrier in many organisations.
The first step in modifying the role of risk functions in a modern organisation is to encourage teamwork and shared work practices. In digital transformation, people and procedures are the most important aspects. This would result in a massive opportunity to create long-term financial value for private companies and government agencies.
Although technology may significantly alter how an organisation operates, digitalisation cannot reach its full potential without a strong emphasis on change management.
Placing the right individuals in the proper roles is critical to an organisation’s success. They are the ones who make a company operate, thus it’s best to always value their talents and be assisted in learning how to use new technologies by their respective organisations.
Furthermore, numerous procedures are automated to improve the efficacy and precision of digital banking, enabling financial institutions to optimise their services and business models through digitisation and new technologies. To optimise and expedite payment processes, the financial services sector is under pressure to comply with new regulations and security concerns.
“Consider what technology fits your organisation and would not only deliver but also manage your needs,” Randy said.
He concluded his remarks by thanking the delegates and offering the support of his organisation, encouraging delegates to reach out to him and his team to explore further steps.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) updated its Business Continuity Management (BCM) Guidelines for Financial Institutions (FIs) based on what it has learned from the COVID-19 outbreak and the rise of digitalisation in the financial sector. This will help FIs be better prepared for service disruptions caused by IT outages, pandemics, cyberattacks, and physical threats.
“Against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile and complex environment, the new guidelines will help financial institutions to take an agile and holistic approach in sustaining their critical business services when faced with threats and risk of disruption,” said Vincent Loy, Assistant Managing Director for Technology, MAS.
The updated Guidelines offer additional insights into what FIs may do to better manage the increasingly complex operational environment and threat landscape so that they can continue to provide services to their clients on a consistent basis.
The FIs should follow the updated Guidelines by 1) adopting a service-centric approach through the timely recovery of critical business services facing customers; 2) identifying end-to-end dependencies that support critical business services and address any gaps that could hinder the effective recovery of such services; and 3) enhance threat monitoring and environmental scanning, and conduct regular audits, tests, and industry exercises.
MAS acknowledged all respondents from two rounds of public consultations for their helpful input in the development of the Guidelines.
Stability of the Financial System
MAS values both the soundness of individual financial institutions and the stability of the financial system, while FIs are expected to have procedures in place to decrease the likelihood of operational disruptions, including identifying and eliminating potential single points of failure early on.
Due to time and resource restrictions, it may not be practical or viable to restore all business services and functions as soon as possible in the case of an interruption. To establish the right recovery procedures and resource allocation, the FI should prioritise the recovery of its business services and functions based on their criticality.
Furthermore, FI should set Service Recovery Time Objective (SRTO) for each essential business service and should evaluate its responsibility to clients and other FIs that are using business services.
Increasing reliance on IT systems and external parties has networked the financial sector. The dependency mapping will help the FI identify resources vital to service delivery, analyse the implications of their unavailability, and resolve any gaps that could hinder the recovery of critical business services.
On the other hand, centralising activities has economic benefits, but concentration risk arises when people, technology, or other resources are concentrated in one zone. FIs may be susceptible to concentration risk when several of their core business services and functions. FIs may consider adopting various ways to limit concentration risk and reduce interference impact.
Globalisation and technical innovation allow FIs to better their business processes yet rely on technology and external parties to increase their risk, thus FI should proactively address these risks and seek out ways to improve its BCM.
In addition, the FI should conduct regular and comprehensive testing to ensure its response and recovery arrangements are resilient and can continue delivering important business services and functions after an interruption.
The FI should also ensure that its audit process assesses BCM preparedness based on operational risks and should have robust incident management methods to restart important services and functions within SRTOs/RTOs.
Furthermore, the board and senior management are accountable for business continuation. A protracted disruption in the FI’s core business activities and functions could harm its reputation, financial safety and soundness, or the financial ecosystem.
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) announced a strategic collaboration with an IT service management company that aims to foster a robust Innovation and Technology (I&T) ecosystem in Hong Kong.
Through this partnership, the two will launch a series of programmes under four key pillars to drive innovation of IT companies, start-ups, and researchers throughout their entire growth cycle – Research & Development, Technology Simulation, Co-incubation, and Talent and Culture Cultivation.
The Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP stated that the Park and the company have been working closely for years in supporting high potential tech ventures to innovate, succeed and grow faster. Moreover, surging demand for cloud computing knowledge and innovative technologies has been observed among businesses.
Thus, this partnership combines the scale and technology expertise of the cloud innovation leader with HKSTP’s R&D, incubation and commercialization capabilities accumulated over the past 20 years, to accelerate the development of Hong Kong’s I&T ecosystem while firmly establishing the city’s status as a global innovation hub, the CEO said.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the company’s Hong Kong & Taiwan branch stated that the firm is always committed to supporting the digital transformation of enterprises of all scales in Hong Kong. Since 2014, the two have been working together on a number of cloud programmes and training. They are pleased to deepen their relationship with HKSTP and jointly address the various challenges the city faces in terms of talent, innovation, and technology commercialisation.
The collaboration will be on the following aspects:
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