Background

On 25 September 2025, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) introduced two initiatives targeting the growing use of digital and social media platforms by financial institutions:

1)    Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities

2)    Guide on Responsible Financial Content Creation

These guidelines, which take effect on 26 March 2026, are designed to promote responsible and professional advertising practices in the financial services industry and respond to the challenges that bring about misleading or unbalanced content.

The MAS guidelines follow on from MAS’s advisory warnings issued on 25 September 2025 to 5 unnamed content creators over digital content that may be considered as providing unlicensed financial advice. They were to adjust their content and practices or risk facing enforcement actions for giving unlicensed financial advice. A mere disclaimer such as “this is not financial advice” is insufficient to relief an individual from potential legal consequences.

Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities

Key Highlights

§  Accountability of Board and Senior Management

The guidelines place direct responsibility on the Board and Senior Management of financial institutions to oversee and ensure compliance. This includes:

• Evaluating the risks associated with digital advertising.
• Implementing safeguards to prevent misleading or incomplete advertisements.

§  5 Safeguards

FIs should implement the following:

• Select appropriate digital media for advertising financial products and services;
• Assess characteristics and limitations of digital media, addressing the associated risks, and ensuring that important and meaningful disclosures are presented prominently and clearly;
• Assess and select appropriate digital marketers, ensuring these digital marketers are adequately apprised and comply with the institutions’ digital advertising practices and regulatory requirements, and identifying and addressing conflicts of interests arising the use of digital marketers;
• Monitor digital advertising activities conducted by digital marketers; and
• Take appropriate disciplinary actions against errant digital marketers for improper conduct and practices.

§  Integration with Existing Standards
The new MAS guidelines are designed to complement existing advertising regulations, such as those set by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS). Where overlaps exist, financial institutions must follow the stricter requirement.

Regulatory Objectives

The MAS’s new standards are intended to:

§  Prevent issues such as misleading and unbalanced advertisements, inappropriate use of social media, use of digital media for advertising without prior authorisation

§  Ensure adherence to supervisory expectations set out in various regulations, e.g. Guidelines on Fair Dealing

§  Encourage institutions to go beyond compliance, embracing ethical communication practices.

Guide on Responsible Financial Content Creation

MAS also developed a guide with Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) for content creators (e.g. finfluencers) regarding responsible financial content creation, which covers the following key considerations:

1)    How do I share responsibly?

2)    What are some financial tips that I can consider sharing with my followers?

3)    When do I need to have a licence for providing financial advice?

4)    When do I need to have a licence for dealing in capital markets products?

5)    How do I check if a financial institution is legit to promote?

6)    How do I keep my promotional content professional and compliant with advertising rules?

7)    Should I disclose sponsored content?

What’s Next?

Management should:

§  Conduct an internal audit of current digital advertising policies and practices.

§  Develop robust internal controls and review processes for digital and social media advertising content and monitoring thereof.

§  Formalise training programs to marketing, compliance, and senior management teams on regulatory expectations and ethical advertising standards.

How Can We Help?

Capital Governance assists FIs by:

§  Advising on the design and implementation of enhanced governance frameworks to ensure board and senior management oversight.

§  Assisting in establishing clear disclosure protocols to meet MAS fair dealing and advertising requirements.

§  Conducting gap analyses and compliance assessments of current policies and procedures.

And more…

Contact us now to explore how we can support your financial advisory services in the digital space and ensure compliance to the standards. Find out more here.