Singapore financial sector growth doubles in 2024: MAS

Singapore's financial services sector in 2024 more than doubled the growth rate of the preceding year.

- Angela Tan

But the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) warns that the pace of the last few years is unlikely to persist as the industry braces itself for slower global growth amid tariff uncertainties.

The financial services sector grew 6.8 per cent in 2024 compared with 3.1 per cent in 2023. It accounted for about 14 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP), Deputy Prime Minister and MAS chairman Gan Kim Yong said in the central bank's annual report released on July 15.

Growth was broad-based across segments, including banking, fund management, insurance and activities auxiliary to financial services, which largely comprise payments firms, he said.

MAS managing director Chia Der Jiun said at a media conference on July 15 that the sector's average growth rate stood at 4.7 per cent from 2021 to 2024, keeping it firmly on track to meet the Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025 target of 4 per cent to 5 per cent growth per annum over 2021 to 2025.

Job creation in the financial sector is also on track to meet the ITM 2025 target of 3,000 to 4,000 net jobs created per annum.

The average annual net jobs created for 2021 to 2024 was 4,400, with more than 90 per cent of these going to local workers.

MAS deputy managing director for markets and development Leong Sing Chiong said new jobs were created in different roles from tech-related to non-tech ones including business, portfolio and relationship management.

The banking sector growth remained resilient, with total assets growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.8 per cent over 2021 to 2024.

The insurance industry expanded, with total assets increasing by 3.6 per cent in 2024 over 2023 to $456.4 billion.