The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) updated the rules for participants in the ICO campaigns.
MAS has made changes to the current ICO regulatory rules adopted by the board last year. The changes affected the legal regime for making payments and revealed the Central Bank’s position on how intermediaries should comply with the standards for combating money laundering (AML) and the financing of terrorism. MAS considers as intermediaries all the participants of ICO - issuers of tokens, an online platform for their distribution and trading, as well as financial consultants and advisors of ICO projects.
According to the document, the issuer of ICO must obtain the license to provide services in the capital markets, financial advisers must obtain the license from the financial adviser of the FAA, and trading platforms must be approved by MAS and have permission to conduct operations with securities. All three key participants in ICO campaigns are required to take measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML / CFT).
Also, all participants must develop and implement MAS-compliant procedures for checking and controlling customer transactions based on their transaction records. According to regulatory requirements, even if a token issued during an ICO is not a security, all financial transactions with it must be carried out in accordance with AML procedures.
In 2017, MAS published a guideline on when ICO tokens may be subject to the norms of securities laws. The updated rules state that if a token is not a security, it may still need a license, which confirms its compliance with the AML and CFT rules. In the document, MAS considers 11 potential circumstances that determine the classification of a token.
Recall that in mid-November, the Central Bank of Singapore also developed a bill on payment systems, which includes the regulation of cryptocurrency companies. The new legal regulation will regulate companies engaged in the issuance and exchange of digital currencies, tokens, as well as remittances within Singapore and abroad. In the case of the bill adoption, such services will have to receive licenses of different types, depending on the volume of transfers.
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