The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is looking to simplify the requirements for single family offices to qualify for its tax benefit programme.
Speaking at the Wealth Management Institute’s Global-Asia Family Office Summit on Sept 29, deputy chairman of MAS Chee Hong Tat said that the regulator is seeking to reduce the documents needed for application for the Single Family Office Fund tax scheme.
The MAS is also looking to ease reporting requirements, and expand the types of investments eligible for the fund tax scheme, Chee said.
In his speech, Chee highlighted that Singapore is projected to be the fastest growing wealth management centre through 2029 — the financial sector grew by 6.8% in 2024, more than double the growth seen in the previous year, and private banking client assets growing by 19% in 2024 with about half coming from net new inflows.
But this is something that the regulator does not take for granted. “We certainly will not rest on our laurels,” Chee says.
“Some of you may remember waiting over a year for your Single Family Office tax scheme applications. MAS recognises that this is not the standard of efficiency that we should provide to our clients,” Chee adds.
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On that front, Chee says that the MAS has cut this approval time to three months. A private banking working group, which is co-led by the MAS, is also enhancing account opening processes.
Singapore has seen a “rapid” growth in the number of family offices in the past four years, growing from 400 to over 2,000, which underscores the country’s growing appeal to global investors, says Young Jin Yee, co-head of UBS Global Wealth Management APAC and country head UBS Singapore.
“As the region’s largest wealth manager with three in five APAC billionaires banking with us today, UBS has seen the strong growth of wealth in Singapore. This is where our global connectivity and access will deliver meaningful value to our clients wherever they are in the world,” Young adds.
