China vowed to step up cooperation with Singapore to crack down on cross-border money laundering crimes, highlighting its concerns about illicit flows in the region.

China is paying “high attention” to the situation, the country’s foreign affairs ministry said in response to questions from Bloomberg News about hundreds of remittances from its nationals working in the city-state that were frozen by its police. 

Its police have made progress working with its Singapore counterparts, and it will strengthen cooperation with Singapore’s law enforcement, the ministry added. It also said that the country will safeguard the rights of citizens in the South-east Asian nation. 

The foreign ministry’s response comes after Singapore’s financial regulator ordered remittance firms to only use banks or established networks, rather than tap on cheaper means like third-party agents, when transmitting funds to China. The directive, which came into place for three months from Jan 1, wasn’t related to any specific money laundering concern, the Monetary Authority of Singapore had said in December. 

The remittance issue between China and Singapore highlights battles against financial crimes across Asia, where scams and money-laundering cases involving billions of dollars are making the news. Singapore in particular is seeing its biggest money laundering case play out with more than S$3 billion of assets confiscated from ethnic Chinese in the city-state so far. 

There were more than 670 complaints to Singapore police about frozen remittances to China worth a combined S$13 million as of Dec 15, according to the authorities. Three Chinese blue-collar workers have sued Samlit Moneychanger, a licensed money changer based in the Chinatown area, and are seeking damages after their transfers back home were frozen by Chinese police. BLOOMBERG

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