Singapore: MAS publishes information paper on good practices of market conduct controls in the financial advisory industry

MAS has published an information paper on good practices of market conduct controls in the financial advisory industry (the “Information Paper”), based on findings from a targeted survey of selected financial institutions (“FIs”) conducted in 2025. The Information Paper identifies good practices across four key areas: (i) prospecting and advertising activities; (ii) advisory and sales processes; (iii) safeguards for vulnerable customers; and (iv) complaints handling.

Although the headline requirements in the Information Paper are consistent with MAS’ existing expectations, many of the good practices set a high bar for meeting these requirements and it will be important for FIs to assess how their own practices benchmark against them. The Information Paper also reveals MAS’ current areas of focus, such as social media marketing and the protection of vulnerable customers.

The Information Paper draws on MAS’ supervisory expectations under the Guidelines on Fair Dealing and the Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities.

1. Prospecting and Advertising Activities

FIs should mitigate aggressive marketing at roadshows (e.g., through mandatory training for representatives engaging in crowd-pulling) and facilitate customer feedback (e.g., through QR codes displayed at roadshows).

When conducting digital advertising, FIs should allow customers to verify the identities of representatives, ensure that marketing materials are fair and not misleading, and conduct targeted monitoring of representatives with past social media-related complaints. Much of the guidance on fair practices focuses on digital advertising through social media, reflecting MAS’ emphasis in this area. For example, MAS has noted the good practice of conducting monthly or quarterly sampling checks of representatives’ social media posts.

2. Advisory and Sales Process

FIs should ensure they support non-English-speaking customers (e.g., by incorporating vernacular language functionalities in the Financial Needs Analysis (“FNA”) process and providing targeted language training for representatives serving such customers). FIs should also conduct real-time detection of information discrepancies during the FNA process and ensure that customers understand the product features and risks. MAS has suggested that validation checks during the FNA process alert representatives when a customer’s declared investment knowledge is inconsistent with their education, work experience, and investment experience.

3. Safeguards for Vulnerable Customers

FIs should identify vulnerable customers proactively and MAS has suggested that FIs adopt broader definitions of vulnerable customers beyond MAS’ definition of Selected Clients (“SCs”) (such as customers experiencing significant life changes such as bereavement or loss of employment). FIs should apply additional safeguards to support such customers in the sales and advisory process (such as offering a Trusted Individual and implementing pre-transaction call-backs or face-to-face advisory sales).

4. Complaints Handling

FIs should ensure that material or complex complaints (and not just complaints trend analysis) are escalated to senior management promptly to support consistent decision-making. FIs should use complaints data to strengthen preventative measures, for example, by conducting regular training sessions or newsletters to share key lessons from the data with representatives.