Regional Round-up
Issue 2 of 2020

SINGAPORE

MAS to Revise Exemption Framework for Cross-Border Business Arrangements of Capital Markets Intermediaries

To facilitate business arrangements between financial institutions in Singapore (“Singapore FIs“) and their foreign related corporations (“FRCs“), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS“) has put in place a framework since 2002 that permits these FRCs to provide cross-border financial services to customers in Singapore without being subject to the licensing requirements in Singapore (“FRC Framework“). Under the current FRC Framework, an arrangement between a Singapore FI and its FRCs for the FRCs to provide cross-border financial services in Singapore (“FRC Arrangement“) must be approved by MAS on a case-by-case basis.

On 5 June 2020, MAS announced that it will proceed with its proposal to move the approval approach under the FRC Framework to an ex-post notification approach (“New FRC Framework“). This follows a public consultation conducted by MAS from 4 December 2018 to 31 January 2019.