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- The new regulation is an effort by MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) to make sure that it has sufficient supervisory oversight over such facility providers.
- Virtual token service providers made in Singapore without offering any virtual token services in Singapore are at present unregulated.
- MAS issued guidelines back in January this year, putting restrictions on the advertising of cryptocurrency services to the general public.
What Does The Bill Say?
The bill introduced is dubbed as “Financial Services and markets Bill” which was read 2nd time by Mr. Alvin Tan. There were some robust points involved in this bill, which added strength to regulations associated with crypto.
The monetary sector is dynamic and is evolving at a faster pace, pushed by innovation, digitalization, and the model of the latest services and products. This industry has taken a turn progressively in the past few years, with respect to the kinds of transactions, people, technology, and institutions organizing these transactions.
MAS currently regulates the monetary sector via several Acts, each of which concentrates on particular industries and activities. As this regulatory skeleton is structured in this manner, specific MAS powers like the authority to issue prohibition orders, or to impose technology threat management requirements, can be discovered in various Acts, sometimes in alternate forms.
But not all are found in MAD-administered acts. For example, the current authority to issue prohibition orders is only applicable to people who offer capital market facilities, financial counsel, or insurance services. This is obviously not complex enough, as it sets aside conventional sectors like banking and the latest sectors such as payment services.
FATF has made global standards robust for VASPs, back in June 2019 for this motif. Amendments are already in place to persisting laws to implement these intensified standards.
Bodies that organize businesses for offering virtual token facilities in Singapore are subject to present regulations regardless of where they are set up. However, VASPs created in nations without offering any virtual asset services are at present not regulated by AML/CFT.
How Will This Affect Singapore Citizens Using Crypto
Basically, cryptocurrency’s prime motive was to remain decentralized, and implementation of these regulations over digital assets makes it, in some way, centralized, as they are eventually controlled by the authorities.
Although, some regulations on cryptocurrency are a necessity too, as many bad actors are crawling out there who make illicit use of digital assets in offenses such as money laundering, and regulating crypto to prevent them from being utilized for these acts is vital.
So, we just hope that these regulations are for the greater good, and crypto users in Singapore will not get affected by them negatively.
ALSO READ: New rules to stop illicit flows in the EU via Crypto Assets
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
