In January 2012, the MAS is introducing new criteria for providers of leveraged FX, CFDs and other specified investment products to assess the suitability of their products for their clients.
The new requirement
The regulator's new Customer Knowledge Assessment requires our clients to be able to answer 'Yes' to any of the following questions, once a year starting from 2012:
- In the past three years, have you transacted CFDs, forex or any other OTC derivatives at least six times?
- Do you have a diploma or higher qualification in any of the following fields?
- Accountancy
- Actuarial Science
- Business / Business Administration / Business Management / Business Studies
- Capital Markets
- Commerce
- Computational Finance
- Economics
- Finance
- Financial Engineering
- Financial Planning
- Insurance
- Have you passed the Chartered Financial Analyst examination conducted by the CFA Institute or the Association of the Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification?
- In the past ten years, have you worked in any of the following areas for a period of three consecutive years?
- Accountancy
- Actuarial Science
- Developing, structuring, management, training, sale, trading or research and analysis of investment products
- Financial Risk Management
- Treasury
- Provision of legal services / expertise in relation to any of the above working areas
When the new requirement takes effect, clients who meet any of the above criteria will be able to continue trading as usual. Unfortunately, new applicants who don't meet any of these criteria will be unable to trade with IG Markets in Singapore.
Confirming you meet the criteria
In the months ahead we will contact our clients who have traded CFDs with IG Markets fewer than six times between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011, to provide an easy way of confirming which criteria (if any) they meet. There is no action required of our clients at this time.
Updated: 06/12/11
