Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the former chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has secured victory in Singapore's presidential election with over 70 percent of the vote. Reports on September 2 confirmed his win over presidential contenders Huang Guosong and Tan Jianlian. Shanmugaratnam is set to be inaugurated as president on September 14, less than two weeks following the election.
Before entering the presidential race, Shanmugaratnam resigned from Singapore's parliament and his role as the head of MAS, which he had chaired from 2011 to 2023. He also served as Singapore's finance minister from 2007 to 2015. During his tenure as the head of MAS, Singapore's financial regulatory body grappled with significant market events, including the collapses of Three Arrows Capital and Terraform Labs during the 2022 market crash.
Notably, when Shanmugaratnam took the helm at MAS in 2021, he issued warnings to Singaporean users about the highly volatile and extremely risky nature of crypto assets as investment products. However, the regulatory landscape also saw changes during h is tenure, with Crypto.com receiving in-principle approval to operate in Singapore in June 2022. Exemptions were also granted to Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Gemini Trust.
Shanmugaratnam's role as president will be largely ceremonial, focusing on diplomatic functions representing the nation. He will succeed Halimah Yacob, who has held the presidency since 2017. His departure from MAS came after the regulatory body announced re visions to Singapore's stablecoin regulatory framework, set for public consultation in 2022. In July, Singapore's High Court ruled that cryptocurrencies could be treated as personal property, similar to fiat currency.
