The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, has formally approved two companies to provide crypto services. One is the brokerage arm of DBS, the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia. The other is Independent Reserve, a crypto exchange and OTC trading desk.
Singapore Central Bank Formally Approves DBS and Independent Reserve
DBS Bank announced on Friday that its brokerage arm, DBS Vickers (DBSV), “has received formal approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) under the Payment Services Act 2019 to provide payment services. digital payment tokens as a major payment institution “.
The bank explained: “This will enable DBSV, as a member of DBS Digital Exchange (Ddex), to directly support asset managers and companies to trade in digital payment tokens through Ddex.”
Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, Head of Capital Markets at DBS and Chairman of DBS Digital Exchange, said:
Having received formal regulatory approval from MAS, DBSV is now in a better position to help institutional investors and businesses harness the growing potential of digital assets as an investment class.
Since its launch in December as a member-only bourse, DBS Digital Exchange has been “growing very rapidly,” the bank said last month, adding that the platform expected the number of trading members to double by the end of December, and grow by 20-30% annually for the next three years.
Another company, Independent Reserve, a crypto exchange and over-the-counter trading desk, also announced on Friday that it had obtained “license approval” from MAS. The exchange, established in Australia in 2013, provides SGD, AUD, USD, and NZD fiat-to-crypto trading pairs. The company wrote:
The Independent Reserve cryptocurrency exchange today received approval for a major payment institution license in Singapore … to operate as a regulated provider of digital payment token services.
Independent Reserve CEO Adrian Przelozny opined: “A well-regulated environment will benefit both investors and crypto industry stakeholders. With rules tailored to the crypto industry, Singapore currently has the clearest and most detailed licensing requirements of any jurisdiction in Asia. “
The exchange announced in August that it received an “in-principle approval” from the central bank. Since then, “we have seen an influx of retail and institutional investors,” said Raks Sondhi, Managing Director of Independent Reserve in Singapore.
