The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Abu Dhabi Global Market have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen the supervision of cross-border operations of banking institutions.

The signing ceremony was held on the sidelines of the annual Abu Dhabi Singapore Joint Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday. The MAS and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) intend the MoU, which is not legally binding, to cover the full spectrum of banks, financial markets and FinTech-related activities. Their only previous collaboration with each other appears to be as fellow signatories to the the International Organisation of Securities Commissions's master MoU and the FinTech Innovation and Cross-Border agreement that they signed together on 8 March.

The ADGM, which opened for business in October 2015, is located on Al Maryah Island, a free zone full of offices, hotels, restaurants and life-style retail outlets. Its uncanny ability to form international bonds (largely through MoUs such as this one) is attributable to the efforts of its well-connected director of international affairs, Philippe Richard.