Singapore rolls out new anti-money laundering recommendations

On October 4, Singapore’s Inter-Ministerial Committee announced new anti-money laundering (AML) recommendations. They include data sharing between agencies, flagging and striking off inactive companies, and programs to educate businesses about suspicious activity and increase the likelihood that they report such activity.

Indranee Rajah, the second minister for finance and chair of the committee, said the recommendations are designed to deter money laundering without burdening businesses unduly. “This is a fine balancing act because for every step and every measure, there are trade-offs. The system cannot be too lax, but at the same time, it cannot be too stringent,” she said.

These new recommendations follow a 126-page report published in June which noted that Singapore authorities have observed a wide range of laundering techniques being used in the country, involving bank accounts, payment accounts, shell companies and other complex structures and arrangements.

Singapore has been tightening its AML framework following its discovery in 2023 of a massive money laundering operation, the largest such case in its history. Thus far, the city-state’s authorities have seized more US$2.2 billion in assets related to the case. The US$1.5 billion seized from banks was in accounts related to 10 convicted individuals who were born in China and 17 other suspects still at large.

To combat financial crime, Singapore has taken several other steps recently. For instance, it has required more information from family offices and hedge funds while increasing the shuttering of dormant firms. Additionally, in July its parliament introduced the Anti-Money Laundering and Other Matters Bill, which will allow authorities to prosecute suspected offenders without the need to directly link illicit gains to the original crime. Currently, it is sometimes difficult to obtain evidence from victims and authorities overseas, especially when criminal proceeds come from other jurisdictions.

Additionally, the legislation will permit law enforcement officers to investigate money laundering linked to serious environmental crimes like illegal mining outside of Singapore, by designating them as serious offences under the city-state’s laws. Singapore can currently only investigate a crime outside the country if it is also a serious offense under its own law.

Separately, Singapore is increasing scrutiny of casino gaming. New rules are expected to come into force in the near future that will require Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa to conduct enhanced due diligence checks when more than US$2,950 is deposited into a customer’s account. This is to be below the current threshold of US$3,700. Singapore has said that this adjustment reflects its intention to further align its own requirements to those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).