# Singapore

> Singapore (MAS · PDPC): Regulates anonymity by risk assessment, not prohibition. Region: Asia-Pacific. Privacy with disclosure: Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify parties and disclose on demand.

Part of the Soda Labs Privacy Hub regulation map, which reads the instruments
themselves rather than summarising the summaries: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation

## Key facts

- Entry type: Jurisdiction
- Region: Asia-Pacific
- Subject: Regulates anonymity by risk assessment, not prohibition
- Authority: MAS · PDPC
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Privacy with disclosure. Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify parties and disclose on demand.
- Tags: no privacy coin ban, risk-based, zero threshold, Project Guardian
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-singapore

## What it actually says

The one jurisdiction in this section that declined to exclude anonymity-enhancing assets and chose to price the risk instead. MAS set the position in Parliament in October 2022: privacy coins, privacy wallets and mixers attract enhanced obligations rather than prohibition. The notice requires providers to risk-assess such tokens before dealing and to pay special attention to technologies favouring anonymity, and MAS has observed that most licensed firms simply choose not to offer them anyway. That restraint sits alongside a travel rule with no minimum value and a deliberately narrow licensing door. COSMIC is worth noting for what it shows about the underlying logic: Singapore legislated a carve-out from bank secrecy so banks could share data privately with each other, not publicly.

## The instruments that matter

- **MAS Notice PSN02**: providers must risk-assess privacy tokens before dealing and pay special attention to technologies that favour anonymity, with enhanced transaction monitoring, but no prohibition
- **No travel rule threshold**: transfers at or below SGD 1,500 still carry originator and beneficiary names and account numbers; above it the originator's identity must be verified
- **DTSP regime, from 30 June 2025**: Part 9 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 commenced with no transition, and MAS said it will generally not licence firms serving only offshore customers
- **COSMIC, live 1 April 2024**: a statutory carve-out from banking confidentiality letting six banks share customer red-flag data with each other

## Sources

- [MAS Notice PSN02](https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/notices/psn02-aml-cft-notice---digital-payment-token-service)
- [MAS parliamentary reply on privacy coins](https://www.mas.gov.sg/news/parliamentary-replies/2022/reply-to-parliamentary-question-on-prevalence-and-regulation-of-cryptocurrency-transactions)

## Related entries

- [Australia](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-australia): Travel rule without a threshold, no coin ban
- [United Kingdom](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-united-kingdom): Risk-based, with an explicit central bank no-access pledge
- [South Korea](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-south-korea): Identity-maximalist, and exporting the model
- [Hong Kong SAR](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-hong-kong): Retail exclusion by liquidity gate, not by anonymity rule
- [India](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-india): No crypto statute, regulated through AML and tax
- [Japan](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-japan): Untraceability barred by self-regulation, now moving into ordinance