This new rule, which will amend the city state’s Financial Advisers Bill, will impact those firms with headquarters outside of Singapore, enabling the parent company’s home regulator to investigate a company’s Asian offices.
“This is a good step as it increases transparency of a subsidiaries’ operations and controls,” said Anu Phanse, AAM Advisory’s head of compliance, adding however that this is a rule which is unlikely to affect AAM’s Singapore-headquartered business.
He added: “This rule is also in line with the general trend of increased mutual co-operation amongst regulators worldwide, which helps sustainability of global businesses and will help to highlight any issues at an early stage.”
Muted effect
Anne Cheng, compliance officer of Dubai-headquartered Globaleye, said: “The ability to provide foreign regulatory authorities with the power to inspect our business is expected to see muted effect with us, since our foreign offices are also subject to our internal compliance controls and systems.
“Since Globaleye is one of the few multi-jurisdictional players in Singapore, we are frequently applying best practices from all markets in which we operate to ensure we remain at the forefront from both a regulatory and client centric perspective.”
This amendment is the latest in a string of proposals to be introduced in the wake of the Financial Advisory Industry Review.
