Monetary Authority of Singapore take aim at Binance

Binance has been left facing another set-back after watchdogs in Singapore trained their crosshairs on the exchange.

In an alert letter published on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) website, the regulator moved Binance.com onto a list of platforms considered to be unregulated and operating outside of oversight.

Known as the Investor Alert List, it provides a register of unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or regulated by MAS as they offer services to customers in Singapore.

The listing seemingly requires Binance to cease operations in the small nation, and while Binance’s Asia Services was exempted as part of transitional arrangements under the Payment Services Act for the provision of digital payment token services, the exchange appears to have now run foul of that.

Reports suggest that Binance had advance notice of the MAS alert listing, and has been deadlocked in meetings with Singaporean regulators in an effort to bring the exchange into compliance so that it can resume services to customers.

Regulators tighten grip

This comes during a time in which global regulators are tightening their grip on organisations like Binance.

The British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered Binance to stop all services in the UK back in June as part of a wider move aimed at forcing the cryptocurrency industry to fall in line with reporting standards for anti-money laundering reasons.

Despite the FCA’s move, Binance appears to remain operational to customers in the UK, suggesting the exchange is working hard to become compliant in the British regulatory environment behind the scenes.

This came alongside sweeping attacks world-wide on crypto derivatives trading on the Binance platform – something which has now been banned in Europe and Hong Kong.

However, Binance hasn’t been idle to the regulators on the doorstep. In July, CEO Changpeng Zhao (Binance’s CEO) published a lengthy letter reflecting on compliance and how far the company have come in trying to be compliant.

Zhao’s letter also included what many considered a prescription of more compliance employees, more experts, and more regulatory anchors as the solution.

As part of this move, Binance hired the former head of the Abu Dhabi financial watchdog to handle Singaporean compliance.