Singapore anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism application to virtual currencies

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of MAS, the securities regulatory agency answered on January 8th a question from a member of Singapore's Parliament about the enforcement of anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism rules.

Mr Tharman presented the pragmatic approach of Singapore's Law and enforcement forces: Virtual currencies, due to the anonymous nature of their transactions and absence of central intermediary make it challenging to identify fraudulent activities and parties. Nevertheless, the same rules apply and the MAS count on intermediaries, with a projected Payment Services Bill to do this.

Singapore has been a hotbed for ICOs, especially when targeting asian markets in the past years. After a first warning past summer, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued past november a guide about ICO.