How is a gold and silver dealer regulated in Singapore, and what does that cover?

Big Bullion · Published 27 September 2026 · Updated 27 September 2026 · 6 min read

Reviewed by the Big Bullion team, 27 September 2026

A Singapore precious metals dealer registers as a 'regulated dealer' under the Precious Stones and Precious Metals Act with the Ministry of Law, not with a financial regulator. That registration is about preventing money laundering and terrorism financing; it is not a licence to give financial advice, and it does not cover the prices or the products a dealer sells.

One Act, one government office

A business that buys and sells gold, silver or precious stones in Singapore has to register as a 'regulated dealer'. The requirement, the register and the office that runs it are not part of banking or investment law. They sit in their own Act, aimed at one thing: making sure the precious metals trade is not used to move dirty money.

That Act is the Precious Stones and Precious Metals (Prevention of Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Proliferation Financing) Act 2019, administered by the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Division (ACD) at the Ministry of Law. Section 6 makes it an offence to deal in precious stones or precious metals as a business without registering first, and section 7 covers how that registration is granted and renewed. Read 27 September 2026.

What registering actually requires a dealer to do

Registration is not a one-off form. It comes with four ongoing duties, all aimed at the same thing: making it harder to move money through precious metals without a paper trail.

• Customer due diligence (section 16): checking who a customer actually is before certain transactions go ahead, rather than accepting a name at face value.
• A cash transaction report (section 17): a transaction paid for in cash or cash-equivalent above the Act's own threshold, fixed at $20,000, has to be reported to a Suspicious Transaction Reporting Officer in the prescribed form and time.
• Keeping records (section 18): a dealer has to be able to show what it did to check a customer and a transaction, not just that it did something.
• Disclosure of suspicious transactions (section 21): a transaction that looks like money laundering or terrorism financing has to be reported regardless of its size.

None of this is optional or a matter of a dealer's own house policy. It is what the Act requires of every registered dealer, checked by the Registrar of Regulated Dealers.

What it does not mean

Registration under this Act answers one question: is this dealer being watched for money laundering and terrorism financing. It answers nothing else, and three things are worth being direct about because they are easy to assume.

• It is not a licence to give financial advice. A registered dealer selling gold is not thereby qualified or authorised to tell you what to do with your money.
• It is not supervision by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. MAS regulates banks, insurers and capital markets; a precious metals dealer's register sits with the Ministry of Law instead, and for an anti-money-laundering purpose only.
• It does not guarantee a dealer's prices, its stock or that any particular product is genuine or fairly priced. The Registrar checks a dealer's conduct against money laundering rules, not its business practices or its metal.

The Ministry of Law's own Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Division site, acd.mlaw.gov.sg, publishes the regulatory regime for this sector and the list of currently registered dealers, which is the place to check whether a dealer you are buying from is actually on the register. Read 27 September 2026.

What Big Bullion says about its own registration

Rather than restate our position, here is exactly what our own site says, word for word, and nothing added to it. Our footer reads: "Licensed & Regulated by the Ministry of Law Singapore." That line refers to the anti-money-laundering registration described above, not a financial licence. Our about page describes us, in its page description, as "A MinLaw-licensed Singapore precious metals dealer selling investment-grade gold and silver at transparent, live spot-linked prices." Neither line names a licence number or a registration date, and this article does not add one.

We sell physical gold and silver. Nothing on this page is financial advice.