Property agents roped in to fight money laundering, terror funding

Singapore

THE Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) has set out checklists to better guide real estate agencies and salespersons in carrying out their know-your-customer procedures to guard against cases of money laundering and financing of terrorism in big-ticket property transactions.

With this, it will be mandatory for salespersons to complete a checklist on customer due diligence for every property transaction, both sales and leases, and submit it to their agencies. Property agencies will also have to submit to CEA the completed estate agent's checklist for CEA's inspection as and when required by the council.