Asia Newsletter | October 2022

NEWSLETTER: Our article on the speech by MAS’ Managing Director, Ravi Menon, on the topic of development and risks associated with digital assets and cryptocurrencies provides an excellent summary snapshot of the latest in regulatory thinking for the sector.

With the MAS actively promoting innovation in the digital asset ecosystem, it tends to have greater insight into the developments and associated risks compared to other global regulators. Updates reported include the embracing of Distributed Ledger Technology to reduce the time to clear and settle securities transactions from days to minutes. Just this Wednesday, two hotly awaited consultation papers were released on the wider issuance of stablecoins and digital assets – so watch this space!

Another topic in the spotlight is the recent report issued by the SFC on the compliance failings noted during a wide scale review of online brokerages, including attempts to avoid the required suitability obligation, and failures in meeting the SFC’s non-face-to-face (non-FTF) AML onboarding requirements. There are several important lessons learned, both for the target audience of online brokerages but also as read-across to other business models using non-FTF client onboarding procedures.

From an international perspective, check out our update on the SEC’s Risk Alert, which sets out a useful indication of which areas it is most likely to investigate regarding compliance with the new Marketing Rule applicable to US Investment Advisers.

Rebecca Thorpe
Chief Executive Officer

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