Swiss finance minister Ueli Maurer is the driving force behind the alpine nation’s bid to grab some of the dazzle of Singapore’s fintech festival to Europe, a person familiar with the matter told tippinpoint.ch.
The 71-year-old politician is spearheading Bern’s plans for Point Zero, a networking forum in Zurich in June for finance, crypto, and blockchain start-ups to meet potential investors as well as players from traditional finance. Singapore’s deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat is expected to attend the Swiss event.
The Swiss delegation aims to make it the biggest fintech event in Europe, a space already dominated by Finovate and Money 20/20. A Swiss government spokesman confirmed the plans. SIF, Bern’s primary diplomatic arm for finance, is in close contact with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which organizes the city-state’s fintech event in November.
Singapore’s week-long event – Asia’s largest such for fintech – drew 60,000 attendees last year, according to the MAS. The regulator-central bank traditionally uses the event to flag new initiatives, such as lighter-touch regulation for fintechs, or to air its views on emerging trends like central bank digital currencies. By contrast, Switzerland’s efforts are more piecemeal.
At the most recent event two months ago, Maurer met with Heng as well as the city-state’s finance minister Lawrence Wong and MAS Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Maurer, who has been Swiss finance minister since Singapore’s fintech event first took place in 2016, also flagged an European-Asian fintech forum in Switzerland.
The specifics beyond the date – June 21 to 23, 2022 – including venue haven’t yet been hammered out. The event coincides with an easing in Switzerland of travel restrictions during the pandemic. Swiss stock exchange operator SIX is partnering in the effort.
Maurer, who represents the right-wing Swiss People’s Party in government, has proven a far more vocal advocate for Switzerland’s finance industry than his predecessors. He has repeatedly pushed topics like sustainable finance, open banking, decentralized finance, or crypto on the industry – not always to their liking. Point Zero isn’t the first time Maurer has leant a helping hand to the finance industry: he has repeatedly led delegations of bankers including UBS CEO Ralph Hamers to outposts like Hong Kong, Beijing, and – most controversially – Riyadh twice.
