MAS is unusual in combining central banking with full financial supervision. It grants capital markets services licences to brokers and fund managers, supervises banks and insurers, and administers the payment services regime under which crypto exchanges operate as digital payment token service providers.
Its retail protections lean on distinctions between accredited and retail clients, product suitability assessments, and restrictions on how complex products are sold. Crypto firms face a ban on public advertising to retail consumers, limits on incentives, and requirements to segregate customer assets.
Singapore also offers a regulatory sandbox for new models, which is why many tokenisation and cross-border payment experiments are tested there before appearing elsewhere.