Friday, March 19, 2010

Suggestion to regulate all types of investments

The Monetary Authority of Singapore publishes an "alert list" in its website that identifies a long list of companies that operates investments that are not regulated by MAS. They even state that this is not an exhaustive list. This approach is not helpful to the general public.

A better approach is for Parliament to legislate the types of investments that should be regulated. I suggest the following definition, "any contract involving a return of money or delivery of future services, where the contract is advertised to the public through the media or a public talk, excluding contracts where the sum involved is less than $500".

For the avoidance of doubts, the following types of contracts required to be regulated (give a list of the types of transactions, including land banking, time sharing and many multi-level types of marketing scheme). The legislation can also identify the types of transactions that do not need to be regulated. The legislation can give the power to MAS to add or remove from the inclusion or exclusion list from time to time, with the right to appeal to the Minister.

I hope that some of our hardworking members of Parliament can bring up this suggestion to Parliament.

Please give your views on this approach and suggestions on the inclusion and exclusion list.

Tan Kin Lian