Regulation & CBDC
Stablecoin Rules in Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, and Japan
Behind the US, EU, and UK sit four active regimes. Singapore finalised MAS stablecoin rules in 2023 with par redemption inside five business days. Swiss FINMA guidance dates to 2024. The UAE rulebook is in force. Japan's 2026 ordinance took effect in June. Each is covered here from its regulator's own publications.
How this page reads the second wave
Stablecoin law did not stop at the big three. The United States has a statute. The European Union has a live framework. The United Kingdom has final rules. Behind them sits a second wave. This page covers four of its members. Singapore. Switzerland. The United Arab Emirates. Japan. Each section rests on that regulator’s own publications. Each is dated to its read.
One caveat travels at the top rather than the bottom. Japan’s ordinance facts come from machine-assisted reads of the Japanese original. Native-language review is pending. Every Japan claim on this page carries that label. Nothing here upgrades an evidence tier quietly.
Singapore: the MAS framework
Singapore’s regulator finalised its framework on 15 August 2023 [1]. The scope is precise. Single-currency stablecoins. Pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency. Issued in Singapore [1]. Instruments outside that description sit outside the framework. The market’s name for a token does not move the border.
Inside the scope, four requirement families apply. Reserve assets face rules on four axes. Composition. Valuation. Custody. Audit. Issuers must hold minimum base capital and liquid assets. Redemption is duty-bound. Issuers must return par value within five business days of a request. Issuers must also disclose three things [1]. The stabilising mechanism. Holder rights. Reserve audit results. The framework runs through the Payment Services Act 2019.
One forward item is banked without elaboration. The framework page notes a follow-on. A consultation on Payment Services Act amendments opened on 1 September 2026 [1]. Its content was not read for this page. The existence is the fact. The outcome is a tracker item, not a conclusion.
Switzerland: guidance, plus a negative
Switzerland’s stablecoin-specific output comes from FINMA, the market supervisor. The document is Guidance 06/2024, of 26 July 2024 [2]. It addresses issuer risks. It addresses the banks that guarantee them. It covers default-guarantee practice. It carries money-laundering warnings. It is supervisory guidance, not a licensing framework. It is the authority’s standing word on the subject.
The negative finding is banked too. As of 11 September 2026, no newer stablecoin-specific FINMA notice exists. The news index was swept. Site-restricted searches were run. The January 2026 custody guidance was read in full. Zero stablecoin mentions [3]. An absence of new rules is a status. It is a dated observation. Not a gap in the research.
The UAE: a rulebook in force
The Central Bank of the UAE carries the region’s framework. The Payment Token Services Regulation states its own status on its face. C 2/2024. Effective from 31 August 2024. In force [4]. Its text became operative earliest of the four. In 2024.
The regulation covers three service categories. Issuance. Conversion. Custody [4]. It also carries a prohibition list. The list names algorithmic stablecoins. It names privacy tokens. It names payment means outside the dirham and foreign token classes [4]. For those, issuance, promotion, and performance of services is prohibited [4]. The permitted token classes are named on the same page. Dirham payment tokens. Foreign payment tokens [4]. The rulebook draws borders by exclusion as well as by category. That structure deserves to be seen plainly.
Japan: the 2026 ordinance, caveated
Japan’s development is the newest on this page. A Cabinet Office Ordinance was promulgated on 19 May 2026. The comment window ran 3 February to 5 March 2026. The ordinance took effect 1 June 2026 [6]. Its scope reaches qualifying foreign trust-type stablecoins. Those interests gain a legal name. Electronic payment instruments, under the Payment Services Act [6]. A related securities-law delimitation expands alongside it [6]. All of this comes from machine-assisted reads of the Japanese original. That label stands until native review completes [5].
The registers tell the market story. The electronic payment instruments register, dated 27 August 2026, held two registrants. SBI VC Trade, March 2025, covering USDC, RLUSD, and JPYSC. Coincheck, August 2026, covering USDC [5]. Circle’s Japanese entity appeared in none of the registers read. The negative observation is dated [5]. Register facts carry the same secondary-attributed label as the ordinance facts. The Japan rule on this page’s evidence contract says so.
What a second-wave reader should notice
Three structural observations emerge. None is a ranking. First, par-redemption windows repeat across frameworks. Singapore’s five-day duty is one instance. The UK’s T+1 is another. The UK page holds it. Second, prohibition lists are not a Western habit alone. The UAE rulebook’s ban on algorithmic stablecoins is explicit on its face. Third, registers are becoming the proof layer. Everywhere. Japan’s two-row register is one instance. The European register on the MiCA page is another. Same genre of evidence.
Where this page sits
The regulation hub frames the full set of regimes. The GENIUS Act, MiCA, and UK pages hold the big three. The instruments are introduced at stablecoins. Each regime’s disclosures feed the document-reading habits the attestations page teaches.
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