Singapore: Signed Financial Institutions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2024 including new powers for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

On 22 March 2024, the Financial Institutions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2024 was signed by the President of Singapore. The Bill includes new powers for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), aiming to enhance MAS's investigative, reprimanding, supervisory, and inspection powers across various Acts under its purview, including extending the power to compel individuals to attend interviews and record written statements, allowing entry to premises without a warrant under specific conditions, obtaining court warrants to seize evidence in certain cases, and facilitating evidence transfer between MAS and other agencies. Specifically, the Bill would expand MAS's powers to issue directions to capital markets services licence holders conducting unregulated business, such as bitcoin futures and other payment token derivatives traded overseas. In these cases, MAS would be given the power to issue written directions on minimum standards and safeguards, which would, for example, enable these licence holders to continue fulfilling their obligations to customers of their regulated activities.