MAS expands leadership training programmes for finance executives

SINGAPORE - Singapore’s central bank will broaden its financial training programmes and make them available to a wider range of executives in financial institutions.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will in 2025 launch two new leadership programmes, with one to be tailored for those at the managing director level and above to groom them for more senior roles.

The other caters to “high-potential middle-level professionals”, such as those at the senior vice-president and director levels. This serves a wider range of individuals, more than twice the pool at the senior level, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan said on Oct 2.

Funding for the programmes will be offered under MAS’ Asian Financial Leaders Scheme, enabling Singaporeans to defray 50 per cent of the programme costs, he said.

MAS will also increase its support for financial institutions to post a larger number of Singaporean leaders overseas, through an expansion of its existing International Postings Programme.

“In exchange for the commitment to send more overseas, we will extend more flexibility in terms of the posting duration and extend funding from two years, up to three years,” he added.

Mr Tan, who is also Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, was speaking at the graduation dinner of the Asian Financial Leaders Programme (AFLP).

The AFLP is a training programme backed by MAS for senior leaders of financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies and investment firms. They include professionals in positions such as chief executive, managing director or team head.

A total of 372 C-suite professionals have graduated from AFLP since its launch in 2015. They include senior executives from Standard Chartered Singapore, UOB, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, DBS Bank and Maybank.

The programme is conducted jointly by Singapore Management University and Human Capital Leadership Institute.

It involves a fee of $50,000, consisting of four modules, each hosted by universities in different regions of the world. Singaporeans who are employees of financial institutions and are sponsored by their organisations are eligible for a 50 per cent subsidy.

The AFLP exposed participants to a “global perspective”, said Prudential Singapore chief executive Chan San San, who graduated from the programme in 2022. She assumed her current role in September.

“I made connections with other industry leaders, learnt from our collective experience and gained insights that have pushed me to think more critically about the road ahead for our industry,” she said.

MAS is expanding its leadership programmes at a time when geopolitics, climate change and emerging technologies are making the world more uncertain, requiring business leaders to “think and act more nimbly, more strategically and more decisively”, Mr Tan said.

He added that financial leaders in Singapore will need to understand Asia’s operating environment to help play a bridging role between Asia and the world, as the region attracts the attention of global investors.

He also emphasised the importance of financial leaders, noting that they are crucial to bringing Asian perspectives to the global stage.