An umbrella statute with a crypto-specific Part

Read the PDF edition (1 page)

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 (FSMA) was enacted as No. 18 of 2022 and assented to on 25 April 2022. Its long title describes it as an Act to provide for financial sector-wide regulation of financial services and markets. The long title expressly includes the licensing and regulation of digital token service providers.¹ The Act gathers powers that MAS previously held under separate statutes, such as the power to issue prohibition orders, to impose technology risk requirements and to regulate for AML purposes, and gives them a single sector-wide basis. It commenced in stages: s. 202 on 30 June 2022, Parts 1, 2, 4, 6, 10 and 11 on 28 April 2023, Parts 5, 7 and 8 on 10 May 2024 and Part 3 on 31 July 2024.² Part 9, on digital token service providers, was the last to commence, on 30 June 2025.

Part 9 has one purpose. It implements the FATF requirement, introduced in the 2019 revision of Recommendation 15 and its Interpretive Note, that each country license or register virtual asset service providers that are created in its jurisdiction, wherever they provide their services.³ Before Part 9, a Singapore-incorporated company that provided crypto services exclusively to customers outside Singapore was outside the Payment Services Act, because that Act requires a business of providing a payment service "in Singapore". It was also outside the SFA, because it dealt in DPTs and not in capital markets products. Such a company could use the Singapore flag, a Singapore office and Singapore bank accounts while being supervised by nobody. The FATF mutual evaluation process identified this as a gap, which Part 9 closes.

Notes

Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 (No. 18 of 2022), assented to 25 April 2022, long title and commencement notices as shown on Singapore Statutes Online. ↩
Singapore Statutes Online, FSMA 2022 commencement information: s. 202 on 30 June 2022; Parts 1, 2, 4, 6, 10 and 11 with listed sections on 28 April 2023; Parts 5, 7 and 8 on 10 May 2024; Part 3 on 31 July 2024. ↩
FATF, Updated Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, October 2021, paras 75 ff. on the licensing or registration of VASPs in the jurisdiction where they are created. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

English

Contact

Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC

I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

I operate across the key financial centres in South-East Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland, with a particular focus on asset protection, international tax and estate planning, as well as trusts, company administration and other fiduciary services. My philosophy is to serve as a trusted advisor working closely with my clients and to help them achieve their commercial objectives.

All Singapore law advice is provided through KGP Legal LLC, an established and duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors.

KGP Legal LLC is a medium-sized law firm in Singapore that is capable of providing the full range of legal services and corporate administration work. Please contact me directly at [email protected] if you need any further information.

Get in touch →

Articles and Insights

Setting up or expanding in Singapore?

SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

If you are planning a company incorporation, an investment, a holding structure or a market entry through Singapore, you can reach Dr Ressos directly at [email protected]. Singapore law advice is provided by KGP Legal LLC, a licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors. As a Singapore law practice, KGP Legal LLC is authorised under the Legal Profession Act 1966 to advise on Singapore law and to represent clients before the Singapore courts; foreign law practices with an office in Singapore are, as a rule, not permitted to do either. Dr Ressos and his team facilitate the full range of Singapore legal, compliance and company administration services, including company incorporation, corporate transactions, commercial contracts, crypto and digital assets, financial regulatory work and dispute resolution, including litigation in the Singapore courts. For legal, tax and fiduciary services in Switzerland, see helveticaregister.com.