Singapore's central bank proposed to impose new requirements on financial institutions to improve controls and facilitate investigations into cases of market abuse.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, said it is proposing the new rules as the absence of information and delays associated with the retrieval of information on individuals who own or control trading accounts have impacted probes into market abuses. The challenges have been exacerbated by changes in technology and insufficient controls to detect and deter market abuse, it added.

To combat such challenges, the MAS proposed to introduce a client identification rules where financial institutions must establish arrangements with their clients to provide information about the ultimate beneficial owners of orders and trades, or O&Ts, to the central bank or any other law enforcement agency, within five days upon request.

Further, financial institutions would be required to record all communications between their trading representatives and the person instructing the O&T in customers' account for any capital market products. All records are to be kept for five years.

The MAS also proposed to introduce a new requirement for financial institutions to capture and record the device ID for O&T executed via mobile trading applications. Financial institutions may also be required to maintain a centralized electronic register of all payments received in cash or from third parties. For cash payments, the register should contain the identity of the payer, the reason for paying and source of funds. For noncash payments, financial institutions should document all available details, such as mode of payment, name of counterparty bank and account holder.

The MAS is seeking comments from all financial institutions and other interested parties until Sept. 5.