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MAS Penalties Reference Guide

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| Document Type | Regnify Internal | | Status | current | | Last Updated | 2026-05-02 |

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Overview

This document provides a comprehensive reference of penalty ranges for offences under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA), Financial Advisers Act (FAA), and related legislation. It covers civil and criminal penalties for both individuals and corporations, and describes aggravating and mitigating factors that influence penalty outcomes.

Securities and Futures Act (SFA) Penalties

Part XII: Market Conduct Offences

Insider Trading (Sections 218-219)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal (S.221) Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 250,000
Civil penalty (S.232) Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided (whichever is greater) Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided (whichever is greater)

Notes: MAS has increasingly preferred civil penalty proceedings for insider trading since 2010 due to the lower burden of proof. Criminal prosecution is reserved for cases involving senior corporate officers, large profits, or repeat offenders.

False Trading and Market Rigging (Section 197)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 250,000
Civil penalty Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided

Market Manipulation (Section 198)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 250,000
Civil penalty Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided Up to SGD 2 million, or 3x profit gained / loss avoided

False or Misleading Statements (Section 199)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 250,000
Civil penalty Up to SGD 2 million Up to SGD 2 million

Fraudulently Inducing Trading (Section 200)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 150,000

Employment of Manipulative and Deceptive Devices (Section 201)

Enforcement Track Individual Corporation
Criminal Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 7 years Fine up to SGD 150,000

Licensing and Conduct Offences

Carrying on Business Without a License (Section 82)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 150,000

Acting as Representative Without Appointment (Section 99B)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 50,000 and/or imprisonment up to 12 months

Breach of Prohibition Order (Section 101A)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years

Failure to Notify MAS of Changes (Section 101)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 25,000
Corporation Fine up to SGD 25,000

Disclosure and Reporting Offences

False Statements to MAS (Section 330)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 50,000 and/or imprisonment up to 2 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 50,000

Failure to Comply with MAS Direction (Section 101)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 150,000

Financial Advisers Act (FAA) Penalties

Core Conduct Obligations

Carrying on Business Without a License (Section 6)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 150,000

Acting as Representative Without Appointment (Section 23B)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 50,000 and/or imprisonment up to 12 months

Failure to Conduct Financial Needs Analysis (Section 27)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 25,000
Corporation Fine up to SGD 25,000

Note: While the statutory fine may appear modest, failure to conduct proper needs analysis typically results in prohibition orders and compensation directions that are far more consequential.

Failure to Disclose Material Information (Section 25-26)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 25,000
Corporation Fine up to SGD 25,000

Unsuitability of Recommendations (Section 36)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 25,000
Corporation Fine up to SGD 25,000

Breach of Prohibition Order (Section 59)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 150,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years

Misconduct and False Statements

Providing False Information to MAS (Section 57)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 50,000 and/or imprisonment up to 2 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 50,000

AML/CFT Penalties

Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act (CDSA)

Money Laundering (Section 44)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 500,000 and/or imprisonment up to 10 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 500,000

Note: This applies to anyone who conceals, disguises, converts, transfers, or removes proceeds of criminal conduct.

Failure to Disclose Knowledge of Money Laundering (Section 39)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years

Tipping Off (Section 48)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 250,000 and/or imprisonment up to 3 years

Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act (TSOFA)

Providing Property/Services for Terrorism (Section 4-5)

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 500,000 and/or imprisonment up to 10 years (life imprisonment if death results)
Corporation Fine up to SGD 1 million

MAS Notices (Administrative Penalties)

Failure to File STR (MAS Notice 626 / SFA04-N02)

Category Penalty
Financial Institution Fine up to SGD 1 million per breach
Responsible Officer Prohibition order + potential criminal referral

Failure to Conduct CDD (MAS Notice 626 / SFA04-N02)

Category Penalty
Financial Institution Fine up to SGD 1 million per breach

Sanctions Violations

Category Penalty
Individual Fine up to SGD 1 million and/or imprisonment up to 10 years
Corporation Fine up to SGD 1 million

Prohibition Order Durations

Duration Guidelines by Offence Type

Misconduct Category Typical Range Typical for Serious Cases
Fraud / misappropriation Permanent Permanent
Forgery / falsification Permanent Permanent
False qualifications Permanent Permanent
Insider trading 5-10 years Permanent
Market manipulation 5-10 years Permanent
Unauthorized trading (systematic) 5-10 years Permanent
Churning 5-8 years 10 years
Mis-selling (systematic) 5-10 years Permanent
Failure to conduct needs analysis 3-5 years 7 years
Undisclosed conflicts 3-5 years 7 years
Confidentiality breach 3-5 years 10 years
AML/CFT failures (individual) 3-7 years Permanent
Single negligent act 1-3 years 5 years

Composition of Offences (Section 337 SFA)

MAS may compound certain offences, allowing payment of a composition sum instead of prosecution.

Eligible Offences

  • Minor regulatory breaches (e.g., late filing of returns)
  • First-time technical breaches of licensing conditions
  • Minor disclosure failures
  • Administrative non-compliance

NOT Eligible for Composition

  • Insider trading
  • Market manipulation
  • Fraud and deception
  • Money laundering
  • Terrorism financing
  • Any offence involving imprisonment exceeding 3 years

Typical Composition Sums

Severity Range
Minor regulatory breach SGD 5,000 - SGD 20,000
Moderate breach SGD 20,000 - SGD 50,000
Significant breach SGD 50,000 - SGD 200,000

Aggravating Factors

MAS considers the following factors that may increase the severity of enforcement action:

  1. Deliberate or intentional conduct: Premeditated misconduct is treated more seriously than negligent acts
  2. Systematic pattern: Repeated or prolonged misconduct over time
  3. Sophistication: Use of elaborate schemes to carry out or conceal misconduct
  4. Abuse of trust or position: Exploiting a position of authority or client trust
  5. Targeting vulnerable persons: Misconduct directed at elderly, less sophisticated, or vulnerable individuals
  1. Scale of harm: Large number of affected clients or significant financial losses
  2. Market impact: Significant distortion of market prices or integrity
  3. Amount of profit: Large illicit gains obtained from the misconduct
  4. Systemic risk: Conduct that threatened the stability of the financial system
  1. Concealment: Attempts to conceal misconduct or obstruct investigation
  2. Non-cooperation: Failure to cooperate with MAS investigation
  3. Previous warnings: Failure to remediate issues previously identified by MAS
  4. Prior disciplinary history: Previous enforcement actions or disciplinary findings
  5. Failure to self-report: Not reporting known breaches to MAS proactively

Mitigating Factors

Factors that may reduce the severity of enforcement action:

Pre-Discovery

  1. Self-reporting: Voluntarily reporting the misconduct to MAS before it is discovered
  2. Whistleblower facilitation: Cooperating with internal whistleblowers who identified the issue

Post-Discovery

  1. Full cooperation: Providing complete and timely cooperation during investigation
  2. Remediation: Taking prompt steps to compensate affected clients and remediate systems
  3. Acceptance of responsibility: Acknowledging wrongdoing and not contesting findings
  4. System improvements: Implementing enhanced controls to prevent recurrence

Personal / Institutional

  1. Clean record: No prior disciplinary or enforcement history
  2. Good corporate citizenship: History of strong compliance culture and cooperation with MAS
  3. Isolated incident: Misconduct was a one-time aberration, not a pattern
  4. Personal circumstances: Genuine financial hardship or personal difficulties (considered but rarely decisive)

Practical Penalty Outcomes (Based on Precedent)

For Individual Representatives

Scenario Likely Outcome
Single negligent compliance failure, no client harm Reprimand or 1-2 year prohibition order
Systematic mis-selling, moderate client harm 5-7 year prohibition order + compensation
Unauthorized trading with client losses 5-10 year prohibition order + possible criminal charges
Misappropriation of client funds Permanent prohibition + criminal prosecution (2-7 years imprisonment)
Forgery of documents Permanent prohibition + criminal prosecution (1-4 years imprisonment)
Insider trading (moderate profit) Civil penalty SGD 300K-800K + 5-10 year prohibition
Insider trading (large profit, senior person) Criminal prosecution (2-4 years) + permanent prohibition
Market manipulation Civil penalty SGD 300K-1.5M + 5-10 year prohibition

For Financial Institutions

Scenario Likely Outcome
Isolated compliance failure, promptly remediated Reprimand + direction to remediate
Systematic AML/CFT failures Fine SGD 500K-5M + business restrictions + independent review
Widespread mis-selling Fine SGD 500K-2M + full client remediation + prohibition orders for responsible individuals
Failure to supervise representatives Fine SGD 200K-800K + direction to enhance supervision
Sanctions screening failure Fine SGD 500K-4M + technology upgrade mandate
Repeated failures after prior warning Enhanced penalties (2-3x typical fine) + potential license conditions

Key Principles for Compliance Officers

  1. Prevention is always better: The cost of compliance controls is always less than enforcement penalties
  2. Self-reporting matters: Early and voluntary disclosure to MAS is consistently treated as a significant mitigating factor
  3. Cooperation is essential: Full cooperation with MAS investigations can meaningfully reduce penalty severity
  4. Remediation is expected: MAS expects prompt remediation of any identified deficiencies
  5. Individual accountability: MAS increasingly holds individuals (not just institutions) accountable
  6. Proportionality: Penalties are calibrated to the seriousness of the breach, the harm caused, and the culpability of the offender
  7. Deterrence: MAS considers the general deterrent effect when setting penalties
  8. Track record: Maintaining a strong compliance track record provides protection when issues arise

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