Singapore’s central bank and police authorities have been helping banks to set uniform standards for fine-tuning their vetting approach when opening crypto accounts.
The project has been ongoing for about six months, the Bloomberg story said. A separate industry report expected to outline best practices in areas like due diligence and risk management, could be published in the next two months, the sources told Bloomberg. The report that focuses on firms that provide payment services would cover stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFT) and gaming credits.
“There are no rules prohibiting banks operating in Singapore from doing business with crypto/DPT players. As with any other current or prospective customer, banks are required to conduct customer due diligence measures to understand and manage the risk(s) posed by them,” a spokesperson for the Monetary Authority of Singapore said.
The MAS told Bloomberg there are no rules stopping banks operating in the country from doing business with firms handling cryptocurrencies or other forms of digital assets. According to the sources cited by Bloomberg, “even with such guidelines, the banks will decide whether to accept these clients based on their risk appetites.”
