Ahead of the introduction of the Payment Services Act, MAS is stepping up its supervisory and surveillance capabilities to bolster the detection of unlicensed digital payment token (DPT) activities.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is experimenting with both in-house and external technologies to draw insights from new data points, such as transactional information on public blockchains and other sources to facilitate the pro-active detection of unlicensed DPT activities, a senior regulator said on Wednesday.
«Refining our supervisory approach for a fast-developing new asset class is a major but necessary undertaking for MAS, in order to respond effectively to rapid developments in the environment,» Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime) said at the International Compliance Association annual APAC conference.
The new data points complement traditional information sources, which include statutory returns and suspicious transaction reports, to serve as early warning indicators, Yee said.
Payment Services Act
DPTs are vitrual assets such as bitcoin that facilitate cross-border transactions. MAS' moves come ahead of the introduction of the Payment Services Act, which is expected by January 2020. Yee noted that entities performing DPT services will be licensed under the Act and come under MAS’ AML/CFT supervision.
Yee said that the Act's requirements, which take into account the ML/TF risks arising from DPT activities, are in line with international standards.
