Last updated 8 October 2026 — by Adrian Tan, SDM. Marketing guidance, not legal advice. Section numbers refer to the Precious Stones and Precious Metals (Prevention of Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Proliferation Financing) Act 2019 as currently shown on Singapore Statutes Online; check with MinLaw, IRAS or a lawyer before relying on any point for a campaign.
Gold has had a remarkable run, and Singapore jewellers have been advertising hard on the back of it: “999 pure gold”, “916 bangles at today’s gold price”, “gold-wrapped silver at a fraction of the price”, “lab-grown diamonds, same sparkle”, “buy gold bars GST-free”. Much of that advertising now runs on Instagram, TikTok live streams and marketplaces as well as in mall shopfronts.
Jewellery is one of the few retail categories in Singapore with its own registration law, and that law contains a holding-out offence. Under the Precious Stones and Precious Metals Act (the PSPM Act), acting as or holding out to be a regulated dealer without registering with the Ministry of Law is an offence, with a fine of up to S$75,000, up to three years’ jail, or both. A 2024 amendment also stops registered dealers from using their registration as a marketing badge.
This guide covers who must register, what a registered dealer may and may not say about it, how purity and “gold-wrapped” claims are judged, when “GST-free gold” is accurate, and where gold investment schemes cross into territory regulators have warned about.
The rules at a glance
| Claim or activity | Rule | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Selling, offering for sale or holding out as a dealer in precious stones, metals or products without registration | PSPM Act s 6(1) | Up to S$75,000 and/or 3 years, plus up to S$7,500 a day (s 6(2)) |
| Advertising your registration in a way that suggests MinLaw regulates you for anything beyond anti-money laundering | PSPM Act s 10(1)(ea), from 1 May 2024 | Registration may be suspended or cancelled |
| Cash or cash-equivalent sales above S$20,000 | PSPM Act ss 15-17 | Customer due diligence and cash transaction reports; failures fined up to S$100,000 (CDD) or S$20,000 and/or 2 years (reports) |
| Purity claims (999, 916, 18K) | Consumer protection law; voluntary hallmarking to SS 581:2020 | A false purity claim is a misleading practice |
| “Gold-wrapped” claims | Consumer protection law; CASE/SJA/SPA advisory, July 2026 | Disclose coating thickness and back it with certification |
| “GST-free gold” | IRAS investment precious metals exemption | Only for qualifying bars, wafers, ingots and coins; never jewellery |
Who must register: the PSPM Act
Regulated dealing is defined broadly
The PSPM Act was passed to stop the precious metals and stones trade being used for money laundering and terrorism financing. Its core obligation is registration with the Registrar of Regulated Dealers at the Ministry of Law’s Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Division (ACD).
Section 2 defines regulated dealing to include manufacturing, importing or possessing precious stones, metals or products for sale, and “selling or offering for sale” any of them. It also covers selling or redeeming asset-backed tokens. Pawnbrokers are excluded, because they are regulated under their own Act.
Three definitions decide whether your business is in scope:
- Precious metals (Schedule): gold, silver, platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium, plus alloys containing at least 2% by weight of any of them.
- Precious stones (Schedule): diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald, jade and pearl. The Schedule heading reads “precious stones (natural or otherwise)”, so lab-grown diamonds and cultured pearls are inside the regime.
- Precious products (s 2): jewellery, watches, apparel and similar items where at least 50% of the value comes from precious stones or metals.
That last definition catches more businesses than people expect. A fashion brand selling a gold-and-diamond watch, a wedding boutique selling bridal gold sets, or an Instagram seller of solid gold rings may all be “offering for sale” precious products.
The holding-out offence
Section 6(1) is short: “A person must not act as or hold out to be a regulated dealer unless the person is a registered dealer.” The penalty under section 6(2) is a fine of up to S$75,000, up to three years’ jail, or both, plus up to S$7,500 a day for a continuing offence.
For marketing, “offering for sale” is the key phrase. A product listing, a live-stream sale, a WhatsApp catalogue or a marketplace shop for gold jewellery is an offer for sale. If the seller is not registered, the advertising is the regulated dealing. Agencies and platforms running those campaigns should ask for the client’s registration before launch, just as they would ask a moneylender for its licence.
Don’t turn registration into a trust badge
Many jewellers would like to say “MinLaw-registered” or “government-registered dealer” in their ads. Since 1 May 2024, section 10(1)(ea) lets the Registrar suspend or cancel a dealer that has “displayed, advertised, stated or otherwise used its registration” in a way likely to give the “erroneous impression” that the Registrar regulates it for anything beyond anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing or proliferation financing.
Registration means the dealer must perform due diligence and file reports. It says nothing about gold purity, diamond grading, prices, workmanship or after-sales service. So:
- Risky: “MinLaw-registered: guaranteed genuine gold”, “Government-approved jeweller”, “Regulated by the Ministry of Law”.
- Safer, if you mention it at all: “Registered dealer under the PSPM Act (anti-money laundering)”, in small print in an About page or footer, not as a headline claim.
If you want a quality signal, earn one that is about quality, such as CaseTrust-SJA accreditation (below).
Cash promotions and the S$20,000 threshold
Sections 15 to 17 set the anti-money laundering mechanics. A “designated transaction” is a cash or cash-equivalent payment above the threshold amount of S$20,000. Before such a transaction, the dealer must carry out customer due diligence (s 16), and it must file a cash transaction report (s 17). Failing to do customer due diligence carries a fine of up to S$100,000; failing to file a report carries up to S$20,000 and/or two years. The Registrar can also impose administrative financial penalties of up to S$100,000 under section 10(2).
This affects marketing in two ways:
- “Cash discount” campaigns on high-value pieces push customers towards exactly the transactions that trigger due diligence. Do not promise “no questions asked”, “no IC needed” or “anonymous purchase”, and train staff that the process applies regardless of the promotion.
- Gold bar and coin promotions often involve large sums. If the campaign targets buyers spending more than S$20,000, build the identity check into the customer journey and say so; it reassures legitimate buyers.
Enforcement is real. On 19 November 2024, MinLaw’s ACD announced that a dealer had been fined S$35,000 for failing to perform customer due diligence. It had sold more than S$313,000 of valuables, and more than S$140,000 of that was traced to two victims of malware scams.
Purity claims: 999, 916 and karats
Hallmarking is voluntary
Singapore has no compulsory hallmarking law. The Singapore Assay Office (part of Singapore Test Services, an ST Engineering company) hallmarks to Singapore Standard SS 581:2020 on the fineness and marking of precious metal articles. A full hallmark has three parts: the jeweller’s or sponsor’s mark, the Assay Office’s lion-head mark, and a fineness mark such as 999, 916, 22K, 750 or 585.
Because hallmarking is voluntary, a purity number stamped on a piece or printed in an ad is simply a claim by the seller. Consumer protection law treats it like any other factual claim: if a “916” bangle is not 91.6% gold, the claim is misleading, whether or not anyone has tested it. Our guide to the Trade Descriptions Act for marketers explains how false descriptions of composition are treated.
What the numbers mean
| Mark | Gold content | Advertising note |
|---|---|---|
| 999 / 24K | 99.9% | “Pure gold” should mean this, and nothing less |
| 916 / 22K | 91.6% | The common standard for Singapore bridal and festive jewellery |
| 750 / 18K | 75% | Usual for gem-set and Western-style jewellery |
| 585 / 14K | 58.5% | Should not be called “gold” without the karat |
| Gold-plated / gold-wrapped | A coating over another metal | Never imply solid gold; disclose the coating |
Prices “at today’s gold price”
Gold jewellery is often priced by weight plus a workmanship charge. If your ad says “at today’s gold price” or quotes a per-gram rate, the price the customer pays should be built from that rate, with any workmanship, setting or design charges shown clearly. A headline per-gram rate that only applies to 999 bars, used next to images of 916 jewellery, is the kind of mismatch consumer protection law treats as misleading. Weight-based selling also brings in measurement rules, covered in our guide to weights and measures rules for marketers.
“Gold-wrapped”: the July 2026 advisory
On 9 July 2026, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), the Singapore Jewellers Association (SJA) and the Singapore Pawnbrokers’ Association issued a joint advisory on the ambiguous use of “gold-wrapped” in jewellery marketing, as rising gold prices pushed shoppers towards cheaper gold-wrapped silver.
A mystery-shopping test commissioned by CASE examined three gold-wrapped silver pieces. The exterior gold layer varied widely: the thickest reading, 9.86 microns, was more than four times the thinnest, 2.13 microns. The associations concluded that consumers have no assurance of how much gold is on the outside of what they buy, and cannot check it themselves.
Their recommendations are effectively an advertising standard for the category:
- manufacturers and retailers should disclose the gold coating thickness at the point of sale;
- they should provide independent certification to back their claims;
- buyers should ask for certification or assay reports before buying, and are encouraged to use CaseTrust-SJA accredited jewellers.
For marketers, the safe approach is to treat “gold-wrapped” as a description of a coating, never of the item. Put the base metal and the coating thickness in the product title or the first line of the listing (“925 silver, 5-micron 24K gold layer”), avoid “real gold” or “pure gold” anywhere in the copy, and keep the certificate ready to show. Avoid comparisons such as “looks exactly like solid gold at a tenth of the price” that invite customers to treat it as solid gold.
CaseTrust-SJA: a quality signal you can advertise
The CaseTrust-SJA accreditation scheme is voluntary. Accredited jewellers must sell gold jewellery tested by laboratories accredited by the Singapore Accreditation Council, or a mutual-recognition equivalent. Unlike PSPM registration, it is designed to say something about the product, so an accredited jeweller can lead with it. Only accredited businesses may use the mark, and it must come down if accreditation lapses.
Lab-grown diamonds
Lab-grown diamonds are increasingly advertised alongside natural stones. Singapore has no specific advertising rule for them, and I found no CCCS or CASE guidance on how they must be described. Two points still follow from the law that does exist:
- they are precious stones under the PSPM Act (the Schedule covers stones “natural or otherwise”), so sellers need to be registered like any other dealer;
- general consumer protection law prohibits misleading omissions and descriptions, so a lab-grown stone should never be presented in a way that lets buyers assume it is natural. Say “lab-grown” (or “laboratory-created”) next to the word “diamond” every time it appears in an ad, not only on the product page.
Comparative claims such as “same as a natural diamond” or “identical sparkle, 80% cheaper” need care: physical and chemical similarity is one thing, but resale value and rarity are different, and a claim that implies equivalent value is risky.
“GST-free gold” and gold investment schemes
When gold is GST-exempt
IRAS exempts investment precious metals (IPM) from GST. The e-Tax Guide sets the conditions: gold of at least 99.5% purity, silver of at least 99.9% and platinum of at least 99%. Bars, wafers and ingots must come from a refiner on the LBMA or LPPM Good Delivery lists, and coins must be on IRAS’s approved list. Jewellery, numismatic items and palladium are not exempt.
So “GST-free gold” is accurate only for qualifying bars, wafers, ingots and coins. It must never appear near jewellery, and a “GST-free” claim for a 999 gold pendant is wrong even though the pendant is 99.9% gold. For GST-registered jewellers, the normal price display rules apply to everything else; our guide to website legal requirements in Singapore covers GST-inclusive pricing.
Gold savings and buy-back schemes
Singapore has a painful history with gold investment schemes. In a 2013 parliamentary reply, MAS said gold buy-back schemes were “presently not regulated”, that several operators had been placed on its Investor Alert List, and that it would work with the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore on misleading advertising. In March 2022, the former head of transactions at Genneva, a gold buy-back company that had promised returns of up to 36% a year, was sentenced to 60 months’ jail for fraudulent trading.
The lesson for advertisers: the moment a gold product is marketed on its expected returns rather than as a purchase of metal, it starts to look like an investment offer. Avoid promised or “guaranteed” returns, fixed buy-back yields and “passive income from gold”. If the product really is a capital markets product or a collective investment scheme, it falls under the securities rules covered in our guide to investment offer advertising in Singapore. Instalment plans for jewellery purchases raise separate credit-advertising questions, covered in our guide to credit and BNPL advertising.
Worked example: rewriting a jewellery live-stream
Consider a fictional Instagram jeweller planning a weekend live sale. The draft script includes:
“Pure gold bangles from S$299! Gold-wrapped, looks 100% real. Lab diamonds, same as natural. MinLaw-registered so you know it’s genuine. GST-free gold today only. Pay cash, get 5% off.”
| Draft line | Problem | Revised line (if true) |
|---|---|---|
| “Pure gold bangles from S$299” | At that price these are the gold-wrapped items, not solid gold | “925 silver bangles with a 5-micron 24K gold layer, from S$299” |
| “Looks 100% real” | Invites the buyer to treat a coating as solid gold | Drop it; show the coating certificate instead |
| “Same as natural” | Implies equivalent value | “Lab-grown diamonds, certified, at a lower price than natural stones” |
| “MinLaw-registered so you know it’s genuine” | s 10(1)(ea): registration is not a quality endorsement | Remove from the sales script entirely |
| “GST-free gold” | Jewellery never qualifies for the IPM exemption | Remove |
| “Pay cash, get 5% off” | Large cash sales trigger CDD above S$20,000 | Fine for small items; brief staff on the S$20,000 threshold |
Channel notes
- Live-stream selling. Spoken claims are advertising. Script the purity, coating and lab-grown disclosures and repeat them on screen, because viewers join mid-stream.
- Marketplaces. Product titles are where “gold” gets stretched. Put the karat or “gold-plated” or “gold-wrapped” in the title, not just the description.
- Google Shopping. Use the material attribute accurately; a feed that labels plated items as “gold” will show them against searches for solid gold.
- Shopfronts and mall roadshows. Price tags and “today’s gold price” boards are advertisements too, and must match what the till charges.
Conclusion
Jewellery advertising in Singapore sits under three layers: a registration law with a holding-out offence, consumer protection law that turns every purity and coating claim into a factual statement, and tax and investment rules that limit how gold can be pitched as a financial product. Rising gold prices have made the gaps between those layers profitable to exploit, and regulators and industry bodies have noticed. Jewellers that register, describe metal and coatings precisely, and sell gold as metal rather than as a promised return can advertise confidently in a market where trust is the real differentiator.
If you run a jewellery or precious metals business and want campaigns built on claims that hold up, that is the kind of work our performance marketing team in Singapore does; see our client case studies for results. For the bigger picture, start with our complete guide to performance marketing in Singapore.
Frequently asked questions
Do jewellers in Singapore need to register to sell gold?
Yes, if they deal in precious stones, metals or products. Under section 6 of the PSPM Act, acting as or holding out to be a regulated dealer without registering with MinLaw’s Registrar is an offence, with a fine of up to S$75,000, up to three years’ jail, or both. Pawnbrokers are excluded because they have their own Act.
Can a jeweller advertise that it is MinLaw-registered?
Carefully. Since 1 May 2024 the Registrar can suspend or cancel a dealer that uses its registration in a way that suggests MinLaw regulates it for anything beyond anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. Do not present registration as proof of quality or genuine gold.
Is hallmarking compulsory in Singapore?
No. The Singapore Assay Office hallmarks to SS 581:2020 on a voluntary basis. A purity mark such as 916 or 999 is still a factual claim, and if it is wrong it is misleading under consumer protection law.
How should gold-wrapped jewellery be advertised?
As a coating, not as gold. A July 2026 advisory from CASE, the Singapore Jewellers Association and the Singapore Pawnbrokers’ Association found gold layers on three tested pieces ranging from 2.13 to 9.86 microns, and asked sellers to disclose coating thickness at the point of sale and back it with independent certification.
Is gold jewellery GST-free in Singapore?
No. The GST exemption for investment precious metals covers only qualifying bars, wafers, ingots and approved coins, such as gold of at least 99.5% purity from accredited refiners. Jewellery is never exempt, even if it is 999 gold.
Do lab-grown diamonds need special labelling?
Singapore has no specific rule, but they are precious stones under the PSPM Act and general consumer protection law prohibits misleading descriptions. Say “lab-grown” next to “diamond” every time it appears in an ad, and avoid claims that imply the same value as natural stones.
