Modern AML – an impossible task?

THE Commercial Affairs Department’s (CAD) S$1 billion sting operation has dominated nationwide headlines over the past two weeks. The foremost question on Singaporeans’ minds is perhaps how the suspects pulled this off – how did a small group of individuals amass so many assets, over a considerable period of time, in Singapore’s tightly-regulated landscape?

Singapore’s regulatory framework is a robust one, with a good degree of compliance with the global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). An international organisation that sets the gold standard for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing, the FATF has been described colloquially as “the most influential body you’ve never heard of”. Not only is Singapore a member of the FATF, but a Singaporean, T Raja Kumar, presently sits as its president.

Among the Singapore presidency priorities for the FATF are countering the illicit finance of cyber-enabled crime and increasing the effectiveness of global AML measures. In tangent, Singapore has over the last decade significantly stepped up its own AML efforts. Beyond financial institutions, AML requirements apply to payment service providers, casinos, real estate agents, pawnbrokers, accountants, lawyers, and precious stones and metals dealers, among others. As cryptocurrency went mainstream, Singapore also developed regulations for digital assets and their service providers, in the form of the Payment Services Act 2019.