Singapore regulators have long cooperated with traditional banks to develop uniform standards for screening potential crypto customers, the results and conclusions are expected to be published in the next two months
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According to a Bloomberg report, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), that has been cooperating with the police forces to help local banking institutions optimize their onboarding procedures for digital asset service providers, is ready to present the results of these joint efforts within the nearest months.
Uniform standards for screening potential customers related to the crypto industry will also cover the topics of stablecoins, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and transferable gaming or streaming credits. However, MAS states that despite the existence of potential guidelines, the banks may include their own risk assessment systems into the decision-making process.
Currently, in Singapore, there are no rules prohibiting the banks from cooperating with digital asset providers. Therefore, local banks decide on their own whether to attract or serve crypto-related customers, considering their own commercial aspects and business risk tolerance.
At the same time, the country has recently become an attractive destination for crypto businesses due to its flexible tax policies, access to diverse tech talent and other favourable economic aspects. Last year, Singaporean financial institutions experimented with cryptocurrency and DeFi in the most advanced exploration project ever done by big banks, institutions and regulators.
Conducted on a public blockchain, tokenized foreign exchange (FX) and government securities trading used permissioned, or private, DeFi liquidity pools to perform transactions within Project Guardian, a collaborative cross-industry effort.
Moreover, KPMG report found that family offices and high-net-worth individuals in Hong Kong and Singapore are very keen to invest in crypto.
Nevertheless, in late 2022 the MAS proposed banning digital payment token service providers from offering credit facilities to consumers, including both fiat and cryptocurrencies, which provoked criticism of crypto enthusiasts.
