For the past six months, Singapore authorities have been working with traditional banks to establish uniform screening standards for customers from the crypto industry, Bloomberg confirms.
After a half-year of cooperation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and police forces, helped the local banks to optimize their services and procedures for opening accounts with digital asset providers. The results of the cooperation and the conclusion for risk management and due diligence are expected to be published within the next 2 months.
Stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming credits, and streaming credits are the topics that new guidelines are expected to be covering. The introduction of these guidelines will not restrict banks' decisions but is expected to help with risk assessment.
There are no rules to prohibit banks from working with digital asset providers, told MAS representatives to journalists:
“Banks make their own determination of whether to start or continue a banking relationship with a customer, balancing between commercial considerations and business risk tolerance.”
Singapore’s flexible tax policies and diverse tech talent, as well as its advantageous location, made it a great foundation for digital asset businesses. In late 2022, however, MAS proposed banning the crypto providers from offering any “credit facility” to consumers. The ban included both fiat and cryptocurrencies. However, the local crypto lobbies began openly opposing the proposed ban.
As of today, the local regulators are conducting scrutiny on Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro last month. Terra's ecosystem collapse caused a loss of nearly 40 billion USD and led to a major implosion in the digital market.
