Original Coverage & Source Attribution: fintechnews.sg
Singapore has introduced new safeguards for the data centres and cloud services that support digital banking, payments and other essential services.
The Digital Infrastructure Bill, passed by Parliament on 7 October 2026, introduces two licensing regimes overseen by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Major data centres and cloud providers face stricter licensing rules
The first regime covers major data centres and cloud providers whose disruptions could affect businesses in Singapore and beyond.
Co-location and cloud data centres with a critical IT load of at least 10 megawatts (MW) will require a licence.
Cloud providers must also obtain a licence if their Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services generate at least S$100 million in average annual revenue from Singapore users over three years.
Licensed operators must manage security risks, minimise disruptions, maintain recovery plans and report specified incidents to IMDA.
Past banking outages highlight infrastructure risks
In October 2023, a cooling system failure at a Singapore data centre disrupted banking and payment services for more than 12 hours.
The incident caused over 810,000 failed access attempts and 2.5 million failed payment and ATM transactions, according to the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI).
The new law addresses operational risks such as power outages, cooling failures and fires, alongside existing cybersecurity requirements.
IMDA can also require operators to notify affected users of specified cybersecurity threats or incidents.
Breaches of certain requirements may result in penalties of up to S$1 million or 10 percent of an operator’s annual Singapore turnover, whichever is higher.
Data centres must meet energy efficiency requirements
The second regime requires data centres with a critical IT load of at least 3MW to obtain a licence and meet energy efficiency standards.
The rules cover new and existing facilities, with further requirements for IT equipment and water efficiency possible.
Existing operators will have six months from the relevant provisions taking effect to apply for a licence.
Singapore has more than 1.6 gigawatts of data centre capacity. The law seeks to strengthen resilience while managing growing demand for land, power and water.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by stockdevil via Magnific
