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by taxico » Sat, 31 Dec 2016 10:55 pm
i was involved with starting a company based in singapore that deals with investments... we were a registered FMC a few years ago. it's now based elsewhere - for geographical, tax and other strategic reasons.
in singapore, as we dealt only with private investors and non-traditional assets, getting the necessary base capital of $250k was easy based on trust alone. how will a micro-finance start-up find 250k lying around from day 1 of registration? (it's possible, but usually not when you're small potatoes).
and then there are insurance, risk management, custodial, audit, oversight and a whole host of other up-front/on-going costs... it is not something a one, two or three man part-time app developer/bedroom "investment guru" team can easily undertake without running some significant losses early in the "crowdfunding" game... (there are exceptions of course)
once you hit 50 investors, you'd need to be registered as an institutional or retail FMC... needless to say, expenditure, blood and sweat can only go up.
for lack of my want to comment further... i'd venture that singapore doesn't want "kachang putih" fintech startups. preferably only the unicorns.
i'd add some closing remarks:
from an investor's perspective, MAS has done a decent job of trying to ensure not too many singaporeans get taken for a ride.
when it comes to asians, they do not do something for nothing. it is thus probably far easier to line one's pockets as a registered charity in singapore (champion for... cats/dogs/Gods/foreign workers/<insert your cause here>) and solicit for public funds than to manage funds legally and responsibly (and fully stressed).
edited for clarity.
Aut viam ad caelum inveniam aut faciam