Robust Banking and Insurance Sectors
The Banking (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament on 6 January 2020 to streamline MAS’ licensing and regulatory functions and enhance banking supervision
6 January 2020
The key amendments to the Banking Act (BA) significantly rationalised banking regulation by removing the Domestic Banking Unit and the Asian Currency Unit divide, and consolidated the licensing and regulation of merchant banks under the BA. Other amendments include the enhancement of MAS’ supervision of the banking sector, specifically in areas such as the revocation of bank licences and regulation of outsourcing arrangements.
- MAS’ Consultation Paper, published on 7 February 2019, Proposed Amendments to the Banking Act
- MAS’ Consultation Paper, published on 21 May 2019, Regulating Merchant Banks under the Banking Act
- “Banking (Amendment) Bill 2019”, speech by Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education, on behalf of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister-in-charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, on 6 January 2020
MAS issued an information paper on banks’ collateral management practices
8 August 2019
The paper highlighted sound industry practices, and set out MAS’ expectations in three areas: collateral management and portfolio monitoring, valuer selection, and valuation practices. This was the third of a series of credit thematic reviews, which taken together covered key controls of the credit life cycle, relating to credit underwriting, credit review and collateral management.
MAS issued an Enhanced Insurance Valuation and Capital framework to improve the risk coverage and risk sensitivity of the framework
31 March 2020
The Insurance (Valuation And Capital) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 and New MAS Notice 133 on Valuation and Capital Framework for Insurers (“RBC 2”) took effect on 31 March 2020. RBC 2 enhanced policyholder protection by requiring insurers to hold capital for a more comprehensive range of risks such as insurance catastrophe and operational risks and at a higher target confidence level than the previous capital framework. The enhanced framework also provided more clarity on the supervisory actions that MAS might take when insurers do not meet certain specified solvency levels.