Asia Financial Regulatory Bulletin - January 2026

The end of 2025 saw a lot of regulatory activity in Hong Kong and Singapore. The regulatory focus for both jurisdictions centres on enhancing investor protection, combating market misconduct and money laundering, and ensuring robust product governance and due diligence standards across financial services.

This monthly bulletin provides a snapshot of the most important regulatory changes in Singapore and Hong Kong. To receive a more detailed list of the regulatory developments, please sign up to our monthly newsletter below. 

Key developments: 

Hong Kong SAR: 

• The Financial Services and Treasury Bureau and the Securities and Futures Commission published conclusion papers on their proposed virtual asset regulatory regime, which includes proposals to regulate additional virtual asset-related activities. The relevant legislation will likely be introduced in 2026.

• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has gazetted revisions implementing the Basel Committee's new prudential standard on banks' cryptoasset exposures, which took effect on 1 January 2026.

• The Securities and Futures Commission has exempted non-centrally cleared equity options from bilateral margin requirements with effect from 4 January 2026, aligning Hong Kong with the European Union and United Kingdom. 

• HKMA has also issued guidance on "high-end" money laundering, highlighting evolving typologies involving sophisticated use of multiple accounts, cross-border relationships and citizenship-by-investment schemes to bypass banks' anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) controls.

• HKMA has issued further guidance on the sale and distribution of green and sustainable investment products.

• Enforcement cases in Hong Kong have continued to focus on market misconduct and insider dealing.

Singapore: 

• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued revised Notices to incorporate its proposed amendments to the misconduct reporting requirements for representatives and broking staff, which will come into effect from 1 January 2027. Read more on our blog post. 

• MAS has updated its requirements for financial advisers, relating to when they make recommendations on investment products and requiring enhanced safeguards for certain types of clients. MAS has also updated its guidelines on the remuneration framework for representatives and supervisors.

• MAS has also published supervisory expectations, good practices observed and areas for enhancement following their review of financial institutions’ recruitment and onboarding of financial representatives. Read more on our blog post. 

• MAS is consulting on updating the Guidelines on Liquidity Risk Management for Fund Management Companies. Read more on our blog post.