MAS Bans Binance.com From Conducting Crypto Services

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has stopped cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com from providing payment services in Singapore, and it has placed the company on its Investor Alert List.

MAS has reviewed Binance.com’s operations, and they believe the exchange has breached the Payments Services Act (PSA) for providing payments services without proper licensing. “Binance is required to cease providing payment services which are regulated under the PS Act to Singapore residents and cease soliciting such business from Singapore residents,” said the MAS spokesperson.

The cryptocurrency exchange has also been placed on the Investor Alert List by MAS to warn consumers that Binance.com isn’t regulated or licensed to provide any payment services locally. The list tracks several unregulated companies who have not been licensed by MAS but are wrongly perceived to be so.

Binance Asia Services (BAS), which is the Singapore arm of Binance.com, has submitted a license application under the PSA, and is currently allowed to operate the localised exchange Binance.sg while being exempted from holding a license for the provision of digital payment token services.

MAS has stated that it has been engaging Binance Asia Services on the issue, and expects the entity to start suspending facilitation of transfers of digital payment token assets with Binance.com. Binance Asia Services’ application is currently under review until the financial authority is satisfied that they are able to meet the requirements under the Payment Services Act.

In response to the release by MAS, Binance Asia Services has reiterated that Binance.sg is a separate legal entity from Binance.com with its own local executive and management team, and it does not offer any products or services via the latter.

The announcement is the latest bump in the road for Binance as it is rocked by waves of cryptocurrency regulations in the last few months. In July this year, the Securities Commission Malaysia had banned the exchange from conducting further operations in the country, and issued a public reprimand against Binance’s CEO Zhao Changpeng.

Within Asia, Thai authorities had filed a criminal complaint against Binance while Hong Kong issued a warning against their stock tokens, and Japan also warned that the platform was not registered to operate within the country.

Amidst the tightening regulations, Binance Singapore had appointed former SGX Chief Regulatory Officer and MAS Director Richard Teng as its new CEO earlier last week to head the Singapore operations and move towards creating stricter regulatory compliance.