Singapore's central bank and financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has placed the industry's largest crypto exchange Binance.com on the investor alert list.

The MAS’s alert list of investors shows a list of unregulated entities which may have been wrongly perceived as being regulated or licensed by the authority. On Thursday MAS who is also regulating both monetary policy as well as monitoring the countries financial sector, has placed "www.binance.com" on the list.

The news comes one week after Binance hired Richard Teng, the former chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Stock Exchange, as CEO of Binance Singapore. Teng also worked at the MAS for 13 years as director of corporate finance from 1994 to 2007.

In August a spokesperson from MAS said that Binance Asia Services which was the Binance's registered entity in Singapore was not currently licensed. It has applied for a license and the application is under review by the regulator. Currently the entity is temporarily exempt from licensing under Singapore's Payment Services Act until the application is approved, rejected, or withdrawn.

Currently Binance's Singapore website Binance.sg is not on the investor alert list. As per Binance spokesperson Binance.com and Binance.sg are separate exchanges. Binance.sg operates in Singapore with its own local executive and management team. Binance Singapore is backed by Vertex Venture Holdings and is solely focused on growing the Singapore cryptocurrency ecosystem and servicing users in Singapore.

Warnings against Binance

In Asia, both Japan and Malaysia have warned that the crypto exchange is operating in the country with the requisite license. In the UK, Italy, and Holland, authorities have issued similar warnings.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK said that it doesn't consider the firm "capable of being effectively supervised." The FCA added that, "This is of particular concern in the context of the firm’s membership of a global Group which offers complex and high-risk financial products, which pose a significant risk to consumers."

Indrani Bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA