MAS Proposes Payment Services Act Amendments to Implement Singapore’s Stablecoin Framework
The consultation closes October 16 and would create a dedicated stablecoin issuance license. Detailed rules and the start of the regime remain separate steps.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has opened a consultation on amendments to the Payment Services Act 2019 to implement its stablecoin regulatory framework. The September 1 proposal moves the framework finalized in 2023 toward legislation; it does not mean the new regime has entered into force.
Responses are due by October 16, 2026. For payment companies and prospective issuers, the immediate development is a clearer proposed route to issuing qualifying stablecoins under a dedicated regulatory designation. MAS consultation.
A separate license for stablecoin issuance
The draft would introduce a standalone stablecoin issuance license, according to Gibson Dunn’s analysis of the consultation. That is a change from the 2023 approach, which envisaged bringing the activity within major payment institution licensing.
The firm also notes that MAS plans a later consultation on subsidiary legislation. The current package therefore establishes proposed statutory machinery while further requirements still need to be settled. No enactment timetable has been set, according to the analysis. Gibson Dunn.
For a payments business, that distinction affects product planning. Permission to provide an existing payment service and permission to issue a stablecoin address different responsibilities. Issuance brings the issuer’s own balance sheet, reserve management and redemption obligations into the customer relationship.
The 2023 framework remains the starting point
MAS’s original framework covered single-currency stablecoins issued in Singapore and pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency. It set expectations for reserve quality, capital, disclosures and redemption at par within five business days. Qualifying tokens would carry the specific “MAS-regulated stablecoin” label. MAS’s 2023 framework.
That label concerns a token’s treatment under the framework. It should not be inferred merely because a distributor has a Singapore payments license or because a token trades on a locally regulated platform.
For businesses evaluating a settlement asset, the operational questions extend beyond the name on the token: which entity owes redemption, who can redeem directly, what backs the circulating supply and what happens if the issuer must wind down.
October 16 is the next policy milestone
The consultation gives the industry a defined opportunity to respond before the legislative process advances. Payment providers can assess the proposed issuer structure against their own role as issuers, distributors or users of settlement assets.
Commercial adoption will require those roles to fit together. A statutory framework can clarify responsibility for the money being transferred; payment integration must still deliver access, liquidity and a usable path between the token and a customer’s bank account. Those are separate parts of making a stablecoin useful for everyday settlement.