The ICC Banking Commission conducted its final meeting of 2024 virtually via Teams on 20-21 November. Four separate portions of the event open to Banking Commission members and ICC National Committee representatives took place.
Singapore’s eGuarantees Bring Efficiencies to Process
The Singaporean government launched eGuarantee@Gov, a simple and secure digital process whereby businesses and individuals can provide Electronic Bank Guarantees to Singapore Government agencies.
Singapore’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched in 2022 eGuarantee@Gov, a simple and secure digital process whereby businesses and individuals can provide banker’s guarantees or insurance bonds (Electronic Bank Guarantees) to Singapore Government agencies.
With eGuarantee@Gov, jointly developed with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and in consultation with the General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA), businesses and individuals no longer need to apply for a paper guarantee from a financial institution, visit the FI when it is ready, and deliver the guarantee to a government agency to discharge their contractual or licensing obligation. Instead, the eGuarantee is directly submitted to the government agency within a day.
Currently they are over 20 FIs participating in the process, together with 34 Singapore government agencies, and more FIs and government agencies are expected to join.
“We expect up to 4,000 eGuarantees to be lodged in 2023, resulting in overall savings for all stakeholders of about [SGD] 500,000 per year”, said Singapore Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat in a February 2023 speech. Chee added: “There is also scope in the future for eGuarantees to extend to commercial transactions between businesses and their suppliers and customers.”
