Tan Guan Min
Diploma in Banking and Finance (DBKF)
Awards:
Chua Chor Teck Gold Medal
A Youthful Beacon of Justice
Financial news and stock market prices were early morning conversation topics that Tan Guan Min’s parents were often engrossed in. This slowly planted a seed of interest in her, and she began to read up on financial knowledge. Before she knew it, she became a frequent contributor to family discussions.
Recognising that her strength in mathematics and her interest in the finance industry were a potent combination, Guan Min knew she would flourish with a polytechnic education that emphasised applied learning.
After seeing how Singapore Polytechnic (SP) students could go on learning journeys like the Singapore FinTech Festival to learn about changes and trends from industry experts, the Hillgrove Secondary School alumna did not hesitate to apply to SP’s Diploma in Banking and Finance programme. She was also encouraged by SP’s reputation to produce versatile and capable students.
During her time in SP, the Chua Chor Teck Gold Medal recipient efficiently juggled schoolwork and active participation in various competitions and conferences. This enabled her to pick up many invaluable skills outside of the classroom.
The Youth Model ASEAN Conference 2020 was a memorable event for Guan Min, as she saw it as a unique opportunity to develop her skillsets as a project leader. Besides successfully co-leading a team to plan and implement bonding activities for over 100 delegates from various ASEAN Institutes of Higher Learning, she also doubled up as an emcee for the programme.
Her experience at the conference proved to be useful later on when she worked with industry clients and overseas students from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines as part of the Temasek Foundation Specialists’ Community Action and Leadership Exchange programme. For this project, she and her teammates analysed how Vietnamese real estate company Phu Long Corporation could cater to the needs and expectations of post-pandemic business travellers.
These experiences became the building blocks of a confident and bright individual, whose skills and knowledge developed further during her internship at the Consumer Issues Division of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. As she tackled concerns faced by customers from various financial institutions, she felt very strongly for those who lost their life savings to unethical selling schemes or elaborate scams. Inspired by her colleagues who were committed to coming up with solutions for these customers, she made it a personal goal to contribute towards developing a sound and reliable financial supervision and compliance system that people could trust.
Guan Min has set her sights on furthering her studies at university. After that, this youthful beacon of justice intends to specialise in financial crime compliance as she feels these crimes drive inflation, which in turn negatively affects the livelihoods of people. She dreams of working in an anti-money laundering unit to combat such crimes in the future.
A rare gem of an individual, we are confident that Guan Min would be able to fulfil her aspirations!