MAS Enhances Safeguards for Public Prospecting Activities

The regulator is responding to concerns over unsolicited or persistent solicitation. For compliance teams, the key shift is from broad public engagement to controlled, supervised environments. Firms will need to ensure prospecting occurs only in designated areas at commercial premises, not ad hoc public locations.

They must also appoint suitably qualified overseers for representatives at these events and require representatives to identify themselves and their marketing intent at the outset. This raises the bar for sales supervision, training, and record-keeping. Action items: map current public prospecting activities and venues; update policies and vendor contracts; define designated areas and approval workflows; appoint and train supervisors; embed upfront disclosure scripts; strengthen monitoring, mystery shopping, and complaint handling.

Smaller firms may rely more on third-party venues or roadshow operators, so diligence and contractual controls matter. Larger firms should align across business lines and regions. The changes are conduct-focused, not capital-related, but non-compliance can trigger supervisory scrutiny, remediation costs, and reputational damage.

There is also opportunity: firms that implement clear, customer-friendly prospecting can differentiate on trust and reduce mis-selling risk. Compliance should coordinate with marketing, distribution, HR, and legal, and consider RegTech tools for attendance logs and supervisory attestations. Await implementation timeline and final text from MAS for exact effective dates.

RegCanary view: treat this as a retail conduct priority, not just a roadshow logistics issue.