MAS and ABS have established a taskforce to strengthen cyber and technology resilience against AI-driven threats.
The Taskforce has brought members together since May 2026 and was formally announced on 28 July 2026, representing a coordinated response from Singapore's financial sector to AI-related cyber threats.
According to MAS and ABS, frontier AI technology is altering the cyber threat landscape by enabling faster identification and exploitation of vulnerabilities, as well as automation of attacks at scale. The two bodies stated that this development represents a significant concern for the financial sector and that coordinated, sector-wide action is needed to strengthen resilience against such threats.
The Taskforce brings together a multi-disciplinary group of participants spanning cybersecurity, technology resilience, and AI. Its members include MAS, ABS, DBS, OCBC, UOB, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), and Banking Computer Services (BCS). The stated aim is to address emerging AI-driven threats through collaboration, innovation, and shared expertise across the sector.
Three areas of focus
The Taskforce's work has been structured around three priorities. The first, industry collaboration, involves facilitating the sharing of AI cybersecurity use cases and experience across the financial services industry, alongside engagement with cybersecurity and AI experts.
The second, capability uplift, focuses on improving cyber defence knowledge within the industry and running proof-of-concept trials to test AI-enabled tools against current and emerging threats. In addition, the third area, guidance development, centres on strengthening financial institutions' cybersecurity posture through new measures, controls, and solutions designed to detect, prevent, and respond to sophisticated AI-enabled threats.
Industry and regulatory context
Mr Vincent Loy, Assistant Managing Director (Technology) and Chief Technology Officer, MAS, described frontier AI as increasing the severity, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats, adding that the financial sector needs to respond with urgency through collaboration, and that MAS intends to work with industry partners through the Taskforce to strengthen collective defences. Furthermore, Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon, Director, ABS, similarly noted that AI is reshaping the cyber threat landscape and that the financial sector must continue to move together to remain resilient, citing coordination, governance, and partnership with regulators as central to maintaining vigilance against AI-related risks.
The formation of ACT reflects a broader trend among financial regulators and industry bodies globally to address the dual-use nature of AI, where the same technologies that support fraud detection and risk management can also be leveraged by malicious actors to conduct more sophisticated attacks. Through the process of formalising collaboration between the regulator, banking association, major banks, and financial infrastructure providers, Singapore's financial sector aims to build shared capabilities and guidance ahead of further AI-driven cyber risks.
