Payments Powerhouses: Partnering with Reuben Lim to Establish a Global Fintech Hub

In this edition of our Payments Powerhouses interview series, we delve into the vibrant growth of the fintech sector and reveal how Reuben Lim is playing a pivotal role in bridging Singapore and the global fintech future.

Reuben Lim, with over 15 years of business development and management experience, currently serves as the COO of the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), leading initiatives to strengthen Singapore's fintech ecosystem. Passionate about empowering businesses of all sizes through efficient collaborations and strong leadership, his career spans across aviation, real estate investment, maritime, and intellectual property sectors.

A graduate of Singapore Management University with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Reuben furthered his studies in Intellectual Property and Innovation Management at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Welcome to Payments Powerhouses, Reuben. Could you start by telling us a bit about SFA and its founding purpose?

Reuben: In short, SFA is a non-profit trade association fostering close collaboration within the fintech ecosystem's participants and stakeholders. Our members range from fintech to non-fintech companies, engaging with regulators, financial institutions, and industry suppliers on our platform. We welcome interested companies to join us, with fintech firms as ordinary members and non-fintech as associate members, both enjoying equal rights but with a preference for fintech representation on our executive committee to maintain industry authenticity.

Our partnership model with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is unique as it combines central banking, regulatory functions, and industry development under one roof, allowing for efficient synergy in regulation, policy-making, and market cultivation.

SFA's current focus is on maximizing support for our local and overseas members across various fintech sectors and stages of growth. We use a 2x2 matrix to illustrate this: one axis represents funding stages from pre-seed to listed unicorns, while the other covers business models like B2B2C or embedded financial services. Our services span remittance payments, wealth management, digital solutions, cross-border payments, e-wallets, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and DeFi.

As for talent retention in fintech, it's not just an internal industry competition but also against big tech firms like Meta and PayPal. The average tenure in fintech is about three to five years; however, company culture significantly influences this. Factors like compensation pressure, work flexibility, timing opportunities, company mission and vision play crucial roles in employee retention.

We've also established a talent strategy at SFA involving top fintech CTOs to gain deeper industry insights. Annually we publish a fintech talent report based on interviews and research findings.

Regarding SFA's strategic collaborations globally, we maintain contact with fintech associations across seven Southeast Asian countries. This year we've taken proactive steps to strengthen these ties further and are discussing forming an alliance to be announced at the upcoming Singapore Fintech Festival.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments in Singapore's fintech scene this year, including MAS's Global Fintech Hackcelerator competition and the joint "Global Fintech Awards" by MAS and SFA.

Lastly, for those aspiring to enter the fintech industry: keep an eye on this sector because it will...