Singapore FinTech Festival 2026 (18-20 November): Europe’s stablecoin debate, Cipollone on Friday, paid passes from SGD 250

The Singapore FinTech Festival 2026 runs from 18 to 20 November at Singapore EXPO, and its stablecoin programme has a European cast. On Wednesday, officials from the European Commission, the Bundesbank and the Banque de France share the Policy Stage with the chairman of Qivalis, a bank-owned euro stablecoin venture. On Friday, Piero Cipollone of the ECB Executive Board joins a panel on multi-rail payments.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) organise the event, in collaboration with The Association of Banks in Singapore. A central bank as host explains the mix: crypto is a small share of the 228 agenda entries, most of them on payments, AI, capital and founders. MAS also has a stablecoin law of its own in progress, and its consultation closed on 16 October.

Wednesday’s Policy Stage: Europe’s stablecoin debate in Singapore

All times come from the official agenda as published on 31 October, and they can still move. Singapore (SGT, UTC+8) is seven hours ahead of Paris and Rome in November. The Policy Stage is an open stage: the free Trade Visitor Pass gets you in.

Davies has 15 minutes. The agenda says he will cover which companies are active in EU stablecoins, how the EU framework compares with others, and how the use cases would sit next to the digital euro. It describes Qivalis as owned by a large consortium of EU banks and expects a launch in the first quarter of 2027. For the market he is talking about, see our report on Kaiko’s figures for stablecoin trading against the euro, where a dollar coin leads.

The 15:30 panel turns to tokenized deposits and conditional money, asking whether settlement and compliance rules can be built into the money. Hachmeister, the Bundesbank’s Director General Digital Euro, appears in both the payments and the wholesale sessions.

Earlier, from 10:45 to 11:15 on the Festival Stage, Joachim Nagel of the Bundesbank, José Luis Escrivá of the Bank of Spain and Ulrik Nødgaard of Danmarks Nationalbank discuss what Europe has learned from regulating financial innovation. Off the Policy Stage, Kraken, DBS, Circle and Fiserv take on agentic AI and programmable money at 15:50, and at 17:00 Barclays, Societe Generale-Forge and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan ask what tokenised markets will settle in.

What MAS is finishing at home

On 1 September 2026, MAS published draft amendments to the Payment Services Act 2019 to give legal effect to its Single-Currency Stablecoin framework. The scope is stablecoins issued in Singapore and pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency. Only licensed issuers could use the label “MAS-regulated stablecoins”. They would have to meet rules on value stability, capital, redemption at par and disclosure, prepare stress tests and wind-down plans, and pay no interest.

MAS also proposes to recognise a limited number of foreign-issued stablecoins under a comparable framework, for cross-border wholesale use, and asked for views on coins issued jointly by a Singapore and a foreign issuer. Any other stablecoin would count as a Digital Payment Token, so retail buyers could not pay for it with locally issued credit cards or use leverage.

“Trusted and well-regulated stablecoins can serve as a credible settlement asset in tokenised financial markets”, said Ho Hern Shin, MAS Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision). The consultation closed on 16 October, four years after the first one in October 2022. The release gives no date for the law.

Thursday: Ripple, Binance and the banks

The commercial side comes on 19 November. From 11:35 to 12:20 on the Festival Stage, “One World, Many Rails” puts Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, the issuer of the RLUSD stablecoin, next to Richard Teng, Co-CEO of Binance, Ralph Hamers of Banking Circle, Umar Farooq of J.P. Morgan and Meagen Burnett of Schroders.

The FutureMatters Stage in Hall 5 then runs tokenization panels through the afternoon. At 13:10, BNY, OKX, Fireblocks and the BIS payments committee ask whether tokenized markets can follow programmable money. At 13:40, Partior, Paxos and HSBC weigh stablecoins against tokenized deposits and tokenized money market funds. Plume, Ripple and SMBC follow at 14:10 on liquidity for real-world assets. At 15:55 the subject is compliance, with Binance, TRM Labs, Cleanverse and Khai Uy Pham of the Banque de France.

Friday: Cipollone on the multi-rail panel

Cipollone is listed on Friday 20 November from 10:35 to 11:15 on the Festival Stage (03:35 in Paris and Rome). The session is “A Multi-Rail Future: What Should Come First?”, with Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, and Sheikh Ahmed bin Khalid Al-Thani, Deputy Governor of the Qatar Central Bank. The description covers money forms that coexist, and whether interoperability, inclusion and resilience can advance together. It does not mention the digital euro by name. Our report on Cipollone in Milan covers where that project stands.

Friday’s crypto sessions come in the afternoon. Circle has a sponsored slot on stablecoin payments for business at 14:00 on the Frontier Stage, and Mobi follows at 14:15 on corporate treasury. At 14:40 on the Policy Stage, Marketnode, Hedera and Giesecke+Devrient discuss the infrastructure under tokenised markets, with Chengyi Ong of Circle moderating. “Scaling Tokenization: New Efficiencies, New Vulnerabilities” closes the set at 15:30 on the Frontier Stage, with no speakers named yet.

Singapore FinTech Festival 2026 ticket prices

These prices come from the official registration page, read on 31 October, in Singapore dollars.

So Wednesday’s Policy Stage sessions need no paid pass, while Cipollone’s Festival Stage panel does, or a Livestream Pass from afar. The FAQ says no refunds are made for cancellations or non-attendance, passes are non-transferable, and substitutions need at least two weeks’ notice. The site gives no sale deadline and does not say whether the prices include GST. The Insights2040 Annual Meetings of 16 and 17 November, at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, are invite-only.

Venue, hours and how to follow it online

Singapore EXPO is at 1 Expo Drive, Singapore 486150, and SFF uses Halls 1 to 6. It is one MRT stop from Changi Airport: get off at Expo station (CG1/DT35), nearest to Hall 6 and Foyer Two. The organiser estimates about SGD 15 for a taxi from the airport.

Halls open from 07:30 to 18:30 for most passes and from 10:00 to 18:00 for Trade Visitor and MeetUp holders, subject to change. The first Festival Stage item starts at 09:05 SGT, and the last Friday session listed ends at 17:15. Entry is from age 16. SFF After Hours moves to Clarke Quay Fountain Square on Wednesday from 19:00, with The Founders ROCK from 19:00 to 21:00.

How big the festival was in 2025

The 2025 edition was the tenth. MAS reported more than 70,000 participants from 142 countries and regions, more than 900 speakers and about 300 sessions, with an Insights Forum of more than 2,300 policymakers, regulators, investors and industry leaders. It named tokenisation as a spotlight topic, with AI and quantum technologies.

The 2026 homepage repeats 70,000+ and 142 without a year, so read them as last year’s outcome and not as this year’s registrations. No attendance forecast has been published. Binance and Paxos are Platinum sponsors this year, Ripple is Gold and Circle is Silver, below the Grand tier of Ant International, Mastercard, Tencent and Visa.

Why it matters for readers in Europe

EU rules are moving at the same time. An ESMA opinion of 8 October 2026 tells MiCA-authorised crypto firms to stop services linked to non-compliant stablecoins, and asks national regulators to have remaining exposures fixed within three months of publication, so by about 8 January 2027. Singapore’s interest ban and wholesale route for foreign coins belong to a different regime, but the 16:30 session on Wednesday puts the Bundesbank’s digital euro head and the Banque de France on stage with a MAS moderator.

Hong Kong gets there first: Hong Kong FinTech Week runs its own stablecoin agenda from 2 to 6 November.