Fund Management Company (FMC) Licence Tiers Singapore

Which MAS Licence a Fund Manager in Singapore Actually Needs Now That RFMC Is Gone

A Fund Management Company (FMC) licence is the Capital Markets Services (CMS) authorisation the Monetary Authority of Singapore requires before a firm can manage investment funds for others in Singapore. Since the Registered FMC tier was repealed on 1 August 2024, every fund manager now falls under one of three remaining regimes: Accredited/Institutional Licensed FMC, Retail Licensed FMC, or the lighter-touch Venture Capital Fund Manager registration.

Not financial advice. All figures for educational reference only. Data as at September 2026. Last updated: September 2026.

Key Takeaways

• MAS repealed the Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) tier on 1 August 2024, ending the light-touch route that was capped at 30 qualified investors and S$250 million in assets under management.
• An Accredited/Institutional Licensed FMC (A/I LFMC) can now manage unlimited assets under management for accredited and institutional investors only, subject to S$250,000 in base capital and risk-based capital of at least 120%.
• A Retail LFMC is the only licence that lets a manager accept money from ordinary retail investors, and it carries Singapore’s highest capital and compliance bar for a fund manager.
• The Venture Capital Fund Manager (VCFM) registration remains a simplified route, but only for managers investing solely in qualifying unlisted venture capital deals.
• Firms that held an RFMC before the repeal were required to transition to an A/I LFMC licence, generally within a transitional window set by MAS, rather than continuing to operate on the old registration.

Table of Contents

What Is an FMC Licence?

A Fund Management Company licence is the gateway MAS uses to control who can pool other people’s money into a fund and invest it on their behalf in Singapore. For years, the ecosystem had three doors: Registered FMC (RFMC) for smaller managers serving up to 30 qualified investors with a S$250 million AUM ceiling, Licensed FMC (Accredited/Institutional, or Retail), and the Venture Capital Fund Manager registration. On 1 August 2024, MAS closed the RFMC door. The stated reason was to bring all fund managers under a single, calibrated Capital Markets Services licensing regime rather than maintaining a separate registration track that had grown large relative to MAS’s supervisory resources. Existing RFMCs were required to convert to an A/I LFMC licence. For a Singapore investor doing due diligence on a boutique wealth manager, private fund, or family office platform, checking which of these three regimes a firm operates under is one of the fastest ways to understand who that firm is legally allowed to take money from, and how closely MAS is watching it.

How Does It Work in Singapore?

In Singapore, every entity that manages capital markets products on behalf of others, other than a handful of exempt categories such as banks and certain related-corporation arrangements, needs a Capital Markets Services licence for fund management, issued by MAS under the Securities and Futures Act. The table below breaks down where a firm sits today.

An A/I LFMC can only take money from accredited investors (broadly, individuals with S$2 million in net personal assets or S$300,000 in annual income, among other tests) and institutional investors such as banks, insurers, and other regulated entities. It cannot touch retail money. This is the licence most boutique Singapore fund managers, family offices, and private equity or hedge fund managers use, and since the RFMC repeal it can scale AUM without the S$250 million ceiling that used to force firms to either cap growth or upgrade licences.

A Retail LFMC is a different animal: it is the only licence that lets a firm manage money for the general public, which is why MAS holds it to materially higher base capital, risk-based capital, and reporting standards than the A/I tier.

A VCFM registration exists specifically for managers who invest solely in qualifying venture capital funds investing in unlisted Singapore or foreign businesses that have been operating for no more than roughly a decade, per MAS’s VC fund manager guidelines. It carries lighter capital and manpower requirements than a full A/I LFMC, but a manager that strays outside pure VC deals into other asset classes will need to hold a full licence for that activity.

an FMC Licence Example

Consider a Singapore boutique manager running two vehicles: a S$400 million private credit fund sold only to family offices and insurers, and a separate unit trust it wants to distribute to the Singapore public through a bank’s wealth platform. Before August 2024, if the private credit fund alone had stayed under S$250 million and 30 investors, the firm might have used an RFMC. Post-repeal, that option is gone, so the firm needs an A/I LFMC for the private credit fund regardless of size, since RFMC no longer exists as a lighter alternative. To distribute the second fund to retail investors, the same firm cannot simply rely on its A/I LFMC licence; it would need to separately hold, or partner with an entity that holds, a Retail LFMC licence, because A/I LFMC status does not extend to retail money under any circumstance.

Advantages

• Single calibrated regime. Collapsing RFMC into the A/I LFMC tier removes a licence category that MAS had flagged as harder to supervise at scale, giving Singapore investors one fewer regime to interpret when checking a manager’s status on the MAS Financial Institutions Directory.
• No more AUM ceiling for accredited-investor managers. An A/I LFMC can grow past the old S$250 million RFMC cap without switching licences, which removes a structural reason smaller Singapore managers used to hit a growth wall.
• Clear boundary on retail access. Because only a Retail LFMC can take ordinary retail money, a Singapore investor who is not an accredited investor can use licence type as a quick first filter: if a fund only accepts accredited investors, it is very unlikely to be regulated as a retail product.
• Lighter path preserved for genuine venture capital. The VCFM registration keeps a proportionate, lower-cost route open for early-stage venture investing, which matters for Singapore’s start-up funding ecosystem even after the RFMC repeal tightened the rest of the regime.

Risks and Limitations

• Higher compliance cost for former RFMCs. Firms that transitioned from RFMC to A/I LFMC generally face a higher regulatory and compliance cost base, which can eventually be passed through to investors as higher management fees.
• Licence type is not a performance signal. An A/I LFMC or Retail LFMC licence confirms MAS oversight of conduct and capital adequacy; it says nothing about a manager’s investment track record or whether its strategy will perform.
• Accredited investor products carry fewer investor protections. Because A/I LFMC funds are not sold to retail investors, they are exempt from many of the prospectus and disclosure safeguards that apply to retail products, so an accredited investor doing this kind of investing needs to do more of their own diligence.
• Cross-border managers still need separate authorisation. A fund manager licensed in another jurisdiction is not automatically permitted to manage or market funds to Singapore investors; it typically still needs its own MAS licence or a specific exemption.

FMC Licence Tiers Compared

The table below summarises how the three regimes that exist after the 2024 RFMC repeal differ on investor base, capital requirements, and typical use case.

The Bottom Line

For Singapore investors, the FMC licence tier a manager holds is a quick, reliable way to understand who that manager is legally allowed to raise money from and how much regulatory scrutiny it sits under. Since the RFMC repeal in August 2024, the practical choice for most non-retail managers is now the A/I LFMC, while the Retail LFMC remains the only route into the general public’s wallet, and the VCFM route stays reserved for genuine early-stage venture investing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Terms

• Qualifying Debt Securities (QDS) Scheme Singapore
• Capital Markets Services (CMS) Licence Singapore
• Accredited Investor Singapore
• Variable Capital Company (VCC) Singapore