New guidelines to fight money laundering and financial crime in Singapore

Singapore

TO LAUNDER money through round-tripping, a South Asian conglomerate used 10 subsidiaries to swiftly shift funds of no more than US$20 million each time over just two months between these units.

The subsidiaries were in parts of South-east Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, and used at least one Singapore bank account to channel the funds in 2016 through the complex web of inter-company transfers.

This is just one of the increasingly common tricks used to disguise illicit fund flows that Singapore regulators want the banking industry to review, as they launched on Monday two bestpractice papers to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

The recommendations emerged from the first year of discussions between regulators and banks under the AML/CFT Industry Partnership (ACIP). AML/CFT refers to anti-money laundering and c…