In brief
On 6 March 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a Consultation Paper on Proposed Guidelines on Third-Party Risk Management ("Consultation Paper").
The Consult Paper sets out MAS's proposed Guidelines on Third-Party Risk Management. ("TPRM Guidelines"). The TPRM Guidelines will supersede the current Guidelines on Outsourcing (Banks) and Guidelines on Outsourcing (Financial Institutions other than Banks) (together referred as "Outsourcing Guidelines")1. Unlike the Outsourcing Guidelines, the TPRM Guidelines has a wider scope of application: it will apply not just to Financial Institutions (FIs) with outsourcing arrangements, but all FIs that rely on third-party services.
The TPRM Guidelines provide guidance on four key areas:
- Creating and maintaining a register of third-party arrangements.
- An FI's governance and its third-party risk management and strategy.
- How an FI should handle its third-party arrangements from the pre-contract stage to termination (termed "Third-Party Arrangement Life Cycle").
- Use of sub-contractors.
It is intended for the FI to implement the TPRM Guidelines in a way that is commensurate with the size and complexity of the FI and the nature and materiality of the third-party services the FI uses.
Pending the issuance of the TPRM Guidelines, FIs are expected to manage the operational, technology and cyber risks associated with their third-party arrangements such as by conducting risk evaluations whenever there is a change that affects the risk posed by the service provider to the FI. FIs should also establish robust business continuity measures and effective incident response mechanisms to minimize service disruptions caused by service provider-related incidents.
If you have any feedback or comments for the MAS in relation to the proposals relating to the TPRM Guidelines, please reach out to MAS via this link. The consultation will close on 20 April 2026.
Alternatively, if you have any questions on how this may impact your business or operations, please feel free to reach out to us.
1 For banks and merchant banks, MAS Notices 658 and 1121 will remain in effect and continue to set baseline requirements for banks and merchant banks in their management of outsourcing arrangements.
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