While the regulatory authorities around the world are making the exchanges more and more difficult, Singapore is granting one of the first approvals. It goes to the Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve.
The Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve announced on Mondaythat it received “approval in principle” in Singapore to act as a regulated provider of digital payment tokens. Independent Reserve is one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to be operated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has received such a permit. This news makes you sit up and take notice as the regulatory requirements for exchanges are currently being tightened around the world. Among other things, the Binance crypto exchange is currently feeling this painfully. Just this week, the regulatory authorities in South Korea intervened and ordered the closure of eleven medium-sized crypto exchanges. Independent Reserve was founded in Australia in 2013 and entered the Singapore market in 2019.
[Die Genehmigung] gives us, as an industry participant, security and our customers the certainty that the platform they have chosen has passed the examination by a first-class supervisory authority. The granting of licenses for digital payment tokens by MAS will continue to put Singapore in pole position as the leading financial hub in Asia
said Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Independent Reserve, in the press release.
Independent research ahead of the competition
A new Payment Services Act came into force in Singapore in January 2020, the Payment Services Act (PSA). The PSA provides for the approval and regulation of payment service providers and the monitoring of payment systems. The authorities want compliance with the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing requirements (Anti-Money Laundering / Combating the Financing of Terrorism) and ensure controls to mitigate technological risks. So far, the crypto exchanges in Singapore have been exempt from the obligation to meet the PSA. According to reports, this will not go on forever.
The MAS announced last week that it was in the final phase of examining several applications for a license for Digital Pyament TokenService provider. According to the authority, applications have so far been received from around 170 operators of crypto exchanges. However, the MAS has not yet granted a license in these cases. So for that matter, Independent Reserve is a good step ahead of the competition. The approval process is definitely not a stickle:
We were impressed with the thoroughness of the approval process. A high level of detail is required to ensure that our systems and processes are robust. They meet the strict regulatory standards
said Raks Sondhi, Managing Director of Independent Reserve in Singapore.