Singapore tightens AML restrictions on cryptocurrency companies

Cryptocurrency businesses operating in Singapore will need to register and be licensed to continue serving customers in the country.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Tuesday that the Payment Services Act will now be enforced.

First passed in January last year, the act gives the regulator supervisory authority over all paymentbusinesses in the country.

[Read: Singapore’s financial regulator wants its banks and blockchains to be friends]

Companies now have a month to register with MAS. Once they do so, businesses will have six months to apply for a payment institution license.

“Services that MAS will now be regulating are domestic money transfers, merchant acquisition, and digital payment token services,”said Mr Ong Ye Kung, minister for education, in a speech last year.

“We will be among the first few financial services regulators in the world to introduce a regulatory framework for digital payment…