Trading Platform iSTOX Receives Singapore Regulatory Approvals

(Bloomberg) -- Trading platform iSTOX said it received approvals from Singapore’s regulator that will allow it to expand its activities.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has approved ICHX Tech Pte, iSTOX’s Singapore-based owner, as a recognized market operator and granted it a capital markets services license, according to an iSTOX statement. The decisions will remove restrictions on issuance size and the number of investors it can access, the statement added.

iSTOX uses distributed-ledger technology to offer services including issuance, custody and trading of digitized securities. It offers a way for startups and other companies to raise funds via equity-linked products, debt markets and other structures backed by otherwise illiquid assets such as real estate, according to its website.

Prior to the regulatory approvals, iSTOX operated in the MAS’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox, which allows firms to experiment with new technologies in a defined environment.

Investors in iSTOX include Singapore Exchange Ltd., Temasek Holdings Pte subsidiary Heliconia Capital Management Pte and Japan’s Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings Inc. Last year, iSTOX hired UBS Group AG’s former Singapore investment banking chief Oi Yee Choo.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joanna Ossinger in Singapore at jossinger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Marcus Wright

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