Singapore, 15 July 2014 - The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today released a consultation paper on proposed amendments to its notices to financial institutions (FIs) on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The proposed amendments draw reference from international best practices and the latest recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard-setter for measures to combat money laundering (ML), terrorist financing (TF), and the financing of proliferation. Many of the proposed changes formalise existing supervisory expectations and practices of FIs.
MAS regularly update its AML/CFT regulatory framework to ensure that the supervision of FIs takes into account the latest ML/TF developments. The scope of the amendments will be comprehensive across the financial sector, covering banks, merchant banks, finance companies, money-changers and remittance licence holders, life insurers, capital markets intermediaries, financial advisers, approved trustees, trust companies, stored value facility holders, and non-bank credit and charge card licensees.
Key proposed amendments will:
a) Require FIs to perform an ML/TF risk assessment at the wider institutional level, in addition to assessing the ML/TF risk of individual customers;
b) Elaborate on steps to be taken by FIs to identify and verify beneficial ownership of non-individual customers, such as companies and trusts;
c) Formalise the need for FIs to screen customers and their connected parties;
d) Cater for a risk-based approach for certain categories of Politically Exposed Persons1; and
e) Put in place additional requirements for cross-border wire transfers exceeding S$1,500, such as customer due diligence on occasional transactions and minimum information fields in the message or payment instructions.
Taken together, the new measures will further safeguard Singapore’s financial system from being used to launder money or finance terrorism.
Mr Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director, MAS, said, “Singapore is fully committed to keeping our financial centre clean and supporting global efforts to combat financial crime. In an evaluation exercise conducted by the FATF in 2008, Singapore was assessed to have a rigorous AML/CFT regime. We will undergo another evaluation by the FATF in 2015 and aim to do as well.”
The consultation paper is available on MAS’ website and comments should reach MAS by 14 August 2014. Interested parties may email their comments for the respective MAS AML/CFT Notices to the email addresses listed in the consultation paper.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
Consultation Paper on Proposed Amendments to the MAS Notices to FIs on AMLCFT
Annex A - Proposed Amendments to MAS Notice 626
http://www.mas.gov.sg/~/media/Annex%20A%20%20Proposed%20Amendments%20to%20MAS%20Notice%20626.pdf
