Singapore banks claim readiness as fraud teams lag

Real-time alerts are required for high-risk account activity under the payment safeguards.

Most banking leaders in Singapore say their institutions are prepared for tighter fraud controls covering FAST and PayNow transactions, although views differ sharply between compliance and fraud teams.

A BioCatch survey found that 55% of Singapore respondents considered their institution “mostly prepared” for the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Shared Responsibility Framework, whilst 40% said they were “fully prepared”. 

Another 5% said their institution was only partially prepared, whilst none said they were not prepared.

The framework has introduced additional security requirements for payment service providers using FAST and PayNow. 

These include a 12-hour cooling-off period for new device registrations and token activations, real-time alerts for high-risk account activity, and controls to block transactions linked to accounts showing signs of rapid fund depletion.

Despite the overall confidence reported in the survey, assessments varied depending on respondents’ roles. 

About 73% of compliance professionals said their organisation was fully prepared for the requirements, compared with 14% of fraud professionals.

BioCatch commissioned an anonymous survey of 1,200 banking leaders across 12 markets, including Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and several European markets. The survey was conducted between 15 December 2025 and 6 January 2026.

In Singapore, 71% of respondents said they were the main decision-maker in their department, whilst another 28% said they influenced decisions. 

About 47% were managers or senior managers, 19% were directors or senior directors, and 34% were at vice-president level or above. This included 27% who were C-level executives.