Singapore’s central bank has taken a further step toward turning its long-planned stablecoin regime into law. On 1 September 2026 the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a consultation on proposed changes to the Payment Services Act 2019.
The package would give legal force to the Single-Currency Stablecoin framework first outlined in 2023 and add several new safeguards, among them a ban on interest paid to holders of tokens that carry the official “MAS-regulated stablecoin” label.
Only issuers that obtain the new licence would be allowed to market themselves as licensed MAS-regulated issuers or to describe their tokens as MAS-regulated stablecoins.
Those tokens would have to be pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency, fully backed at all times by high-quality liquid reserves held in segregated accounts, and redeemable at par within a short, prescribed period.
Tokens that fail to meet the standard would remain ordinary digital payment tokens and could not use the protected designation.
One of the most closely watched proposals is the prohibition on interest.
Licensed issuers would be barred from paying holders any interest, return or other benefit that is directly or indirectly linked to the mere holding of the stablecoin.
MAS says the restriction is intended to keep regulated stablecoins clearly in the category of payment instruments rather than savings or investment products.
The approach matches rules already adopted or proposed in the United States and the European Union.
The ban would apply to the issuer itself; commercial arrangements such as revenue-sharing with distributors or exchanges are not meant to be caught.
The consultation also seeks views on extra prudential measures: periodic stress testing, recovery plans and orderly wind-down arrangements.
In addition, MAS is considering two limited openings for cross-border activity. Jointly issued tokens involving a Singapore issuer and a foreign partner could qualify if risks are adequately managed.
A small number of foreign-issued stablecoins supervised under comparable overseas regimes might also receive recognition, mainly for wholesale settlement use.
Non-qualifying tokens would not be prohibited; they would simply continue to be treated as digital payment tokens under existing consumer-protection rules.
The consultation, which includes draft legislative text, is open until 16 October 2026.
No implementation date has been announced.
The proposals aim to create a clearly labelled, tightly reserved payment token that can serve as a settlement asset in tokenised markets while reducing the chance that users treat it as a yield-bearing deposit. Industry participants now have six weeks to comment on both the statutory language and the broader policy questions MAS has posed.
