Knowledge & Insights

The Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") recently published its Response to Feedback Received on the Consultation Paper on Notice on Identity Verification, alongside its Circular on Addressing Risks that Arise from Theft and Misuse of an Individual’s Personal Information.

In its initial Consultation Paper on this matter, the MAS had proposed to issue a Notice on Identity Verification and sought feedback on the types of information that financial institutions ("FIs") should be mandated to use to verify the identity of an individual initiating financial transactions through non-face-to-face communication channels. Following this consultation exercise, the MAS has assessed that the types of information used for such identity verification need not be mandated at present, so as to allow FIs to have flexibility to assess different technologies, processes, and controls which may be used for such purposes. As such, MAS will not proceed to issue the proposed Notice.

At the same time, the MAS has issued the Circular on Addressing Risks that Arise from Theft and Misuse of an Individual’s Personal Information, which sets out the security principles and best practices that should be adopted by FIs in their identity verification processes. In particular, the Circular sets out certain type(s) of information which can be used in the customer authentication process and also indicates that FIs should implement additional authentication measures for certain high-risk activities, e.g. high value funds transfers and revision of funds transfer limits. MAS has also reiterated that FIs are ultimately responsible and accountable for ensuring that an individual is who he or she claims to be before undertaking any transactions for the individual, or acting on instructions from the individual, and should continue to ensure that the identity verification measures that they have adopted are commensurate with the risks posed by the theft and misuse of personal information.

MAS' response and the Circular described above may be accessed at the link here.

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