Singapore I: Foundations and the MAS Approach — a part of the book Digital Assets Law in Singapore and Switzerland by Dr Alexander Ressos.
Singapore I: Foundations and the MAS Approach: a part of the book Digital Assets Law in Singapore and Switzerland by Dr Alexander Ressos.
This part belongs to Digital Assets Law in Singapore and Switzerland by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
Singapore I: Foundations and the MAS Approach
A Swiss or German lawyer who opens the Payment Services Act 2019 for the first time meets a text that looks familiar and behaves differently. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Westminster model in a city state
Singapore is a unitary republic with a written Constitution that declares itself the supreme law of the land. Parliament is unicameral. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderSources of law and how to cite them
Singapore law has four layers. At the top stands the Constitution. Below it sit the Acts of Parliament. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderCommon law, equity and the reception of English law
The civil lawyer's hardest adjustment is the idea that a large part of the applicable law has never been enacted. The Application of English Law Act 1993 settles the matter in two sentences. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe courts
The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1969 structures the superior courts. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPrecedent and how to read a Singapore judgment
The doctrine of binding precedent operates vertically. Decisions of the Court of Appeal bind the Appellate Division, the General Division and the State Courts. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderStatutory interpretation
Section 9A(1) of the Interpretation Act 1965 directs that an interpretation which would promote the purpose or object underlying a written law is to be preferred to one that would not. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe legal force of MAS notices, guidelines, circulars and FAQs
The instrument that most confuses foreign readers is the MAS Notice. A notice is a written direction issued by MAS under a statutory power to a class of financial institutions. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe legal profession and the foreign lawyer
Legal practice in Singapore is governed by the Legal Profession Act 1966. Advocates and solicitors admitted to the Singapore Bar may practise Singapore law. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderReading the system as a whole
For a lawyer from Zug the Singapore legal order presents a paradox. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderOne institution, three roles
The Monetary Authority of Singapore was established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act 1970 and began operations on 1 January 1971. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Managing Directors and the institutional voice
Ravi Menon served as Managing Director from 2011 until 31 December 2023 and shaped the digital-asset policy described in Chapter III. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 as umbrella
Singapore's financial legislation grew Act by Act. The Banking Act 1970, the Insurance Act 1966, the Securities and Futures Act 2001 and the Financial Advisers Act 2001 each regulate one sector. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderMAS's regulatory philosophy
MAS describes its approach with a set of phrases that recur in every consultation paper and that a practitioner should learn to decode. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderLicensing categories relevant to digital assets
The licence a digital-asset business needs depends on the function its product performs. Six regimes cover the field. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderEnforcement powers
MAS enforces through a graduated set of tools that it describes in its Enforcement Monograph and reports on in a periodic Enforcement Report. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderSupervision in practice
Supervision of a digital payment token licensee is conducted by the department responsible for payments, with the anti-money-laundering department and the technology risk specialists involved as… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderReading MAS from Zug
A client who has dealt with FINMA will find MAS both more and less demanding. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderWhy the history matters
A regulator's current rules are the sediment of its past decisions, and nowhere is this truer than in Singapore's treatment of digital assets. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase one, 2014–2016: watching and warning
MAS made its first public statement on virtual currencies on 13 March 2014. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase two, 2017–2019: the ICO wave and the Guide
The initial coin offering boom of 2017 reached Singapore quickly, and several of the largest token sales of that year were conducted through Singapore entities. MAS responded in two steps. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase three, 2020–2021: licensing and the Binance episode
The Payment Services Act 2019 came into force on 28 January 2020. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase four, 2022: the collapses and the doctrine
The year 2022 changed Singapore's policy more than any other. In May the Terra ecosystem collapsed. Its developer, Terraform Labs, was a Singapore-incorporated company. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase five, 2023–2024: building the new regime
MAS published its responses in stages. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderPhase six, 2024–2026: the overseas-only providers
The last building block addressed a problem that had embarrassed MAS since the Three Arrows and Terraform collapses: entities incorporated in Singapore that served no Singapore customers and… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe state of play at 30 June 2026
At the cut-off date of this book Singapore's digital-asset regulation rested on five pillars. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderLessons for the practitioner
Four lessons follow from the history. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe shape of the market
Singapore's digital-asset market is small in the number of licensed firms and large in the weight of the institutions behind them. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderLicensed exchanges, brokers and custodians
The first full licences for digital payment token services were granted in late 2021 to Independent Reserve, an Australian-founded exchange, and to DBS Vickers, the brokerage arm of DBS Bank. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe banks
Singapore's three domestic banks, DBS, OCBC and UOB, are all participants in the digital-asset market in a way no Swiss systemic bank was before 2024. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderMarket infrastructure: SGX, ADDX, Marketnode
Singapore Exchange has approached digital assets through investments and joint ventures. It holds the stake in DBS Digital Exchange mentioned above. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderProject Guardian, Global Layer One and Project Orchid
Project Guardian was launched on 31 May 2022 by MAS with DBS, J.P. Morgan and Marketnode as the first pilot participants. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe family-office wave
The rise of the Singapore single family office is the second large development of the period and the one most relevant to the private-client reader. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderVenture capital, sovereign funds and talent
Temasek, GIC and the venture arms of the banks have invested across the digital-asset industry. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderChoosing a counterparty in Singapore
The ecosystem just described presents a client with choices that did not exist in 2020, and the choices carry legal consequences that the marketing material does not mention. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderHow the ecosystem compares with Crypto Valley
The two ecosystems differ in origin and in texture. Crypto Valley grew from below. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe regional contest
Singapore does not choose its digital-asset policy in isolation. Within a six-hour flight lie Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, each with a regime of its own. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderHong Kong
Hong Kong is the comparison that matters for three reasons. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderDubai and the United Arab Emirates
Dubai created in 2022 the first regulator in the world devoted solely to virtual assets. Law No. 4 of 2022 Regulating Virtual Assets in the Emirate of Dubai was issued on 28 February 2022. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderJapan
Japan regulated crypto exchanges earlier than anyone. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe ASEAN context
Singapore's immediate neighbours have each taken a position, and together they define the regional market that a Singapore-licensed firm serves. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderWhy clients compare Singapore and Hong Kong, and how I answer
In my experience the question arrives in one of three forms. A founder asks where to put the Asian headquarters of an exchange or a stablecoin issuer. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderCooperation among the regulators
Competition between the hubs coexists with cooperation among their regulators, and a client who structures across them should know how much the regulators tell each other. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderA decision sequence for the Asian hub
The analysis of this chapter can be reduced to a sequence of questions that a Swiss group should answer in order. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe regional map and the Swiss reader
For a Swiss practitioner the lesson of this chapter is that Singapore's regulatory severity is a chosen position within a competitive region. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderWhy a map of institutions is needed
The civil-law reader who has absorbed Chapters I to V knows that Singapore regulates through one legislature, one regulator and one court hierarchy. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Monetary Authority of Singapore from the inside
MAS is organised in groups and departments whose names change from time to time, but whose functions have been stable since the reorganisation that followed the 2015 creation of the FinTech and… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority
ACRA was formed on 1 April 2004 by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority Act 2004 through the merger of the Registry of Companies and Businesses and the Public Accountants Board. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
IRAS was established on 1 September 1992 by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore Act 1992. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Commercial Affairs Department and STRO
The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is the specialist white-collar crime unit of the Singapore Police Force and the body that investigates fraud, cheating, criminal breach of trust, market… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderWho the actors are: the Attorney-General's Chambers
The Attorney-General is appointed under Article 35 of the Constitution and is both the Government's chief legal adviser and the Public Prosecutor, with control of all criminal prosecutions. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderThe Singapore Academy of Law
The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) is a statutory body established by the Singapore Academy of Law Act 1988 of which every advocate and solicitor, every judge and every legal officer of the… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderIndustry associations and the private layer
The Blockchain Association Singapore (BAS), formed in 2018, is the principal industry body for digital-asset firms. Read more Singapore · Legal OrderOther public bodies a client will meet
Each of these bodies appears in a later Part. The point of listing them here is to show the civil-law reader that "one regulator" does not mean "one authority". Read more Singapore · Legal OrderApproaching the actors: a sequence
A Swiss or German group establishing a regulated digital-asset business in Singapore meets the actors in roughly this order, which should be planned. - Singapore counsel, admitted under the Legal… Read more Singapore · Legal OrderClosing the Part
This Part has described the legal order, the regulator, the policy history, the market, the region and the actors. The remaining Singapore Parts build on it. Read more