AS AN international financial hub, Singapore, not unlike other major financial centres, is relatively more vulnerable to being misused as a conduit to transfer or recycle money linked to illegal activities.

The city state’s multi-pronged battle against dirty money – chiefly strict regulatory supervision and internal controls by financial institutions – is also set to intensify as financial crimes become more sophisticated owing in large part to technological advancements.

Underscoring such challenges is the recent move by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to penalise key financial institutions here – DBS, OCBC and Citibank, as well as insurer Swiss Life (Singapore) – for breaching anti-money laundering (AML) and countering terrorism financing rules.