The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has partnered regulators in Europe for better policy on the regulation of crypto assets.
According to a press release today, Monday 30 October, the agency is partnering Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to advance digital asset pilots in fixed income, foreign exchange and asset management products.
Tagged Project Guardian, the initiative has MAS collaborating with 15 financial institutions to carry out industry pilots on asset tokenization in fixed income, foreign exchange, and asset management products.
“These pilots have demonstrated the potential to reap significant market and transaction efficiencies from the use of tokenization. As the pilots grow in scale and sophistication, there is a need for closer cross-border collaboration among policymakers and regulators. MAS has therefore established a Project Guardian policymaker group comprising FSA, FCA and FINMA,” the press release stated.
Specifically, the collaboration aims to Advance discussions on legal, policy and accounting treatment of digital assets and identifying potential risks and possible gaps in existing policies and legislation relevant to tokenized solutions;
It also seeks to explore the development of common standards for the design of digital asset networks and market best practices across various jurisdictions and promote high standards of interoperability to support cross-border digital assets development
In addition, the collaboration will facilitate industry pilots for digital assets through regulatory sandboxes where applicable and promote knowledge sharing among regulators and industry experts.
Developing a Common Regulatory Framework
There have been independent efforts by different countries to regulate cryptocurrencies. However, these efforts haven’t yielded much results on their own. This has necessitated the creation of a regulatory framework for regulation of crypto in many countries.
MAS’ partnership with European regulators is aimed at helping to bring common regulatory standards to help regulate crypto among the partner countries. Commenting on the collaboration, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development), MAS, Mr Leong Sing Chiong said:
“MAS’ partnership with FSA, FCA and FINMA shows a strong desire among policymakers to deepen our understanding of the opportunities and risks arising from digital asset innovation. Through this partnership, we hope to promote the development of common standards and regulatory frameworks that can better support cross border interoperability, as well as sustainable growth of the digital asset ecosystem.”
Singapore’s Crypto Stance
Singapore is one of the countries that are most welcoming to cryptocurrencies in the world. The country has made significant progress in making its environment conducive for crypto companies. No wonder many of them have acquired regulatory licenses there recently, including Coinbase, Ripple, and many other exchanges.
As it turns out, lack of regulation is one of the biggest hindrances to the growth of the crypto industry, but Singapore is pursuing regulation to facilitate the growth of the industry, not just in its jurisdiction but also in the countries that are involved in this partnership.
Already, European countries are working on MiCA, a comprehensive regulatory framework that will help regulate cryptocurrencies in the entire European region with the exception of the UK. The UK itself is working on drafting regulations for the industry.
The country has released a policy for the regulation of stablecoins, which will bring fiat-backed stablecoins under the same regulatory provisions as the mainstream financial system, since the country intends to incorporate stablecoins into its payment chains.
