By In another great turn of events for the ICO industry, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has updated it guide for companies who are seeking to raise funds by utilizing initial coin offering sales. (ICOs)
The modified version of the document comes hot on the heels of an announcement regarding a “New Payments Framework” which was mentioned in the original draft of the document. The announcement outlines and elaborates upon Singapore’s Central Bank’s position on how specific intermediaries should adhere to their instructions pertaining to Anti Money Laundering (AML) as well as Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) policies.
The intermediaries who are included are any form of a participant who engages in any activity related to ICO assets. The list includes those who produce/create tokens, to those that oversee trading over online platforms and those who provide the financial consultation pertaining to tokens, everyone is subjected to Singapore’s law. For example, ICO issuers need to acquire a “Capital Markets Services License” while financial advisors need to obtain a “Financial Advisory License” (from the FAA) and any digital asset exchanged needs to be approved by the MAS.
This “New Payments Framework” clarifies that all and any intermediaries are liable to ensure that they “take appropriate steps to identify, assess and understand their money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks”
The guidelines outlined in the document make it clear to companies that they need to develop and integrate their own internal policies under appropriate MAS notices which will, in turn, enable the central bank with the abilities to monitor customers due diligence, transactions alongside all financial records as per the law in the Asian state.
Furthermore, the MAS guidelines state, that even if a token is not a security, it will still be under the requirement to have its compliance determined under the AML/CFT acts. This means that they will be liable to report any suspicious or illicit activities and they are also legally responsible if they are found to be working with any groups or individuals who have been dubbed as terrorist by the Singaporean government or the UN.
The updated document also includes the Payment Services Bill as a legit enabler of the AML/CFT acts within the ICO sector, here is an excerpt:
“A person carrying on a business of providing any service of dealing in digital payment tokens or any service of facilitating the exchange of digital payment tokens must be licensed and will be regulated under the PSB for AML/CFT purposes only and will be required to put in place policies, procedures and controls to address its AML/TF risks.”
The rest of the updated draft is pretty much the same as the one released back last year November. To read the updated copy of Singapore’s ICO guidelines, click here.
Could Singapore’s guidelines influence other ICO friendly nations to seek similar guidelines and laws? Let us know your thoughts.
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