In a boost to Singapore fintech, startups can now tap into government data

Photo credit: Drumah.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) yesterday released 12 APIs on its website. The datasets from MAS’ Monthly Statistical Bulletin are available to developers who work on relevant apps and services.

The APIs include data on domestic interest rates, exchange rates, credit and charge card stats, and loans and advances. The data is provided under terms consistent with Singapore’s Open Data License, which prohibits the use of personally identifiable information.

The APIs will help financial institutions and developers.

The Authority says these APIs will help financial institutions keep their finger on the pulse of the industry and save costs on things like manual data entry. Developers can create services like computing exchange rates and help companies file tax returns or present interest rate trends.

“MAS has been encouraging financial industry players to publish open APIs on their datasets, to allow users to connect information and offer innovative solutions,” says Lawrence Ang, executive director of MAS’ information technology department, in a statement.

The Authority will release more datasets as APIs in the coming months.

Singapore makes large amounts of public data available as APIs; this has allowed developers to make apps for everything from air quality notifications to public transportation information. For example, earlier this year, a Singaporean student made a heatmap of all the city-state taxis.

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from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/mas-open-data-api
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