Singapore regulator advocates ‘one regulatory system’ for crypto and traditional finance
Singapore’s senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also chairman of the country’s central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore, spoke on regulation of cryptocurrencies during a panel discussion with other regulators and bankers at the Global Economic Forum last week.
Shanmugaratnam previously served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Singapore and is currently the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Economic Policies. He said that it is very clear whether it is crypto currency or traditional finance. You need regulation for things like money laundering and that has to be regulated then they are very clear. He started off that beyond that if you have to think or consider regulating crypto in the same way that we regulate the banking sectors and insurance companies then certainly for prudential reasons and for financial stability reasons they think is that we have to take a step back every day and ask what basic philosophical methodology is based on those fields. Further the Minister explains that if something which question is purely a speculation in one form then in reality it is little different. He said are we better provide extreme clarity on what is an unregulated market and if you go into it you go at your own risk and they lean a little bit towards the visibility of that.
MAS President wants to clarify that some segments of the crypto market should and definitely need to be regulated which shows stablecoins as a potential area of oversight but not to be included in the regulatory regime And to get into that whether it’s crypto or something else now we must know for sure it’s a never ending game and they’re not sure that’s the right way to go. Emphasizing that consumer education is of the utmost importance, he says that there is also more clarity – to be very clear, this is the risk we are taking at our own expense and he urges that this risk Don’t take it because it is going and definitely we can lose in it. He said that I like the approach that is expressed in crypto and blockchain or other parts of the ecosystem that we have to do what traditional finance is doing, and then you follow those rules properly. Let’s do and apply them including – capital, liquidity, reserve banking – exactly the same regulations. They conclude that so everyone is very clear and there is some regulatory system for everything and if you are outside this system then you as a buyer beware.
