- The Monetary Authority of Singapore has released the Consultation Paper on the New Omnibus Act for the Financial Sector.
- The Monetary Authority of Singapore, most commonly referred to as the MAS, is the Central bank of Singapore and also works as a financial regulator.
- The new act will also regulate the virtual assets service providers for anti-money laundering (AML) as well as countering of financing of terrorism (CFT) purposes.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has released the Consultation Paper on the New Omnibus Act for the Financial Sector. The act also expected to regulate cryptocurrency industries in Singapore. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, most commonly referred to as the MAS, is the Central bank of Singapore and also works as a financial regulator. It promotes new ways to make Singapore an international economic hotspot.
MAS is vested with the power to regulate cryptocurrency industries since the Payments Services Act passed in January. However, the act only enabled MAS to regulate the companies inside the country, but the new proposed act will allow MAS to also interfere with the businesses outside Singapore.
Harmonizing And Extending Power To Issue POs
As per the authority, the main aim of the consultation is to harmonize and extend the power for the issuance of prohibition orders (PO). The new act will also regulate the virtual assets service providers for anti-money laundering (AML) as well as countering of financing of terrorism (CFT) purposes. This will also power new requirements that are needed to upgrade risk management technology. Besides, this will offer statutory protection from liability to mediators, adjudicators, and employees of an operator of an approved dispute resolution scheme. In short, the main focus of the act is eradicating all the risks associated with Singapore’s financial sector and especially virtual assets trading.
MAS to Keep A Constant Check Over Singaporean Organizations To Eradicate ML and TF
A part of the consultation paper said that owing to the online nature of operations of virtual assets. There is a huge possibility that companies found in Singapore may offer any suspicious services inside the country. However, they may provide them outside the country. Hence the proposed act by MAS will keep a check over the organizations for money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Further mentioned that the organisations could involve individuals from Singaporean business place, corporation, or partnership.
Any organisation or company that does not pass the test and is not approved to be fit and proper for engaging in businesses could be issued a prohibition order, according to the consultation paper. MAS has said that it will implement a proportionate risk approach that has been successfully used in countries like the UK and Australia.