MAS, IBF shift funding for financial training schemes

MAS Financial training

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) have announced they will shift their focus and provide more targeted support for those completing IBF financial services training programs.

This comes after earlier announcements that several talent development programs will be created to cater to the specific needs in growth and priority areas, and that training course subsidy rates will progressively revert to pre-pandemic levels.

The amount of funding support for financial training schemes had risen to around $140 million a year over the past two years, more than 10 times the pre-pandemic amount, to temporarily assist the sector as it struggled with the impacts of Covid-19.

Several changes will be made by the MAS to the funding allocation for the IBF-Standards Training Scheme (IBF-STS) and Financial Training Scheme (FTS) in the coming months.

Beginning 3 October, funding for training schemes under the Critical Core Sills and Future-Enabled Skills categories in the IBF-STS will only be available to locals employed in the financial services industry.

From 1 January 2023 for the IBF-STS, training program subsidies will be lowered by 20 per cent (to 50 per cent), Singapore citizens over the age of 40 will be eligible to receive 70 per cent co-funding and the subsidy cap will revert to SDG$3,000 per participant per program.

From 1 January 2023 for the FTS, training program subsidies will be lowered by 20 per cent (to 30 per cent), Singapore citizens over the age of 40 will be eligible to receive 70 per cent co-funding and the subsidy cap will decrease to SG$500 per participant per program.

“Re-skilling and upskilling our financial sector talent remains critical to building a future-ready workforce,” Leong Sing Chiong, deputy managing director (markets & development) at the MAS, said.

“The high uptake in training by our financial industry professionals is encouraging. We hope that this culture of upskilling will persist, as this allows our finance professionals to continue to support the growth and transformation of our financial sector in in-demand and emerging areas.”

This comes after more than 76,000 individuals participated in talent development programs in Singapore in 2021, with strong participation rates of 25,000 individuals already recorded in Q1 2022.

“To ensure that our financial sector workforce is always relevant to changing industry demand, continuous upskilling and re-skilling is crucial. It is also the responsibility of finance professionals to take ownership of their own learning and development,” IBF chief executive Ng Nam Sin said.

“We are glad to note that training participants have increased substantially over the last two years. [The] IBF wants to build on this momentum to enhance our finance professionals’ employability through continuous upskilling and re-skilling.”