Crypto

IV. Regulatory view on Bitcoin
Regulators Watching Closely… Asia
• On Japan’s FSA permitting the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association to police and sanction any exchanges,
“It’s a very fast moving industry. It’s better for experts to make rules in a timely manner than bureaucrats do.”
--Senior FSA Official, Japan
• “We have to carefully consider the regulatory approach for these platforms because they are new technology and may
not qualify as securities. They do not fit in the custodian, audit or valuation requirements, for instance, normally
expected under the Securities and Futures Ordinance.”
-- Carlson Tong Ka-shing, outgoing chairman of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission
• On issues surrounding cryptocurrency firms setting up local bank accounts in Singapore, “We should not be trying to
create an extremely lax regulatory environment in order to attract that kind of business…What we are trying to do is to
bring the banks and cryptocurrency fintech startups together to see if there is some understanding they can reach…
Some of these [crypto] activities are indeed quite opaque. I would not blame the banks for not opening the bank
accounts.”
-- Ravi Menon, Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore
Source: reuters.com, newsbtc.com, bloomberg.com Morgan Stanley Research
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