A surprising number of Capital Markets Services (CMS) licensees in Singapore are still operating on the compliance policy manual they drafted at the point of licensing — sometimes years earlier, with no formal review in between. Keeping policies current is not a bureaucratic nicety; it is one of the more common gaps that surfaces during
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) can take a range of enforcement actions for breaches of the laws it administers — reprimands, composition penalties, prohibition orders, civil penalties, and referrals for criminal prosecution. MAS’s own stated enforcement priorities for 2025–26 centre on market misconduct, AML/CFT failures, and technology risk. A review of MAS’s recent
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a consultation paper on 10 June 2026 proposing amendments to the MAS Notices on Technology Risk Management. The consultation closes at 11.30 PM on 31 July 2026—giving MAS-regulated firms just under two months to assess the proposed changes and, where warranted, submit a formal response. This article explains
Suspicious transaction reporting is a core AML/CFT obligation for every MAS-licensed fund manager in Singapore. Yet it remains one of the compliance areas most likely to have inadequate policies, insufficient training, and underdocumented decision-making. This guide explains the legal framework, the filing timeline, and the practical steps your firm should take to meet its STR
The concept of “fit and proper” sits at the heart of MAS’s licensing and regulatory framework. Every director, substantial shareholder, chief executive, and MAS-approved representative at a MAS-licensed entity must satisfy MAS’s fit and proper criteria not just at the time of application, but on an ongoing basis throughout their tenure. This guide explains what
Under Section 205 of the Singapore Companies Act 1967, the default statutory mandate requires every Singapore-incorporated company to appoint an Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) approved public accountant within three months of incorporation to conduct an annual financial audit. For many foreign founders, corporate groups, and asset managers, this requirement introduces substantial operational overhead.
For years, many financial institutions (FIs) in Singapore treated their Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks as a “set and forget” exercise. As long as the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA) was updated annually and names were run through a screening database, compliance officers felt secure. However, the mid-2025 amendments to MAS
