Tighter measures to deter money launderers

The Star

Singapore will introduce measures and strengthen inter-agency coordination to clamp down on money laundering, in a Oct 4 report by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Anti-Money Laundering.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00We wish to proactively prevent criminals from laundering their illicit assets in Singapore,

00:12and the recommendations focus on how we can leverage and build upon our existing structures to do so.

00:19A critical group in prevention are the gatekeepers.

00:23For example, the financial institutions and the real estate salespersons.

00:28Gatekeepers are at the forefront of our defences against money laundering.

00:33To enable better gatekeeping, we will strengthen our anti-money laundering standards

00:39and provide more support to gatekeepers to equip them to better comply with our regulations.

00:47Sector supervisors will update their guidance in the coming months

00:51so that gatekeepers are clearer on what is expected of them.

00:56Sector supervisors will also continue to engage the industry and share more,

01:02including their observations on changing risks.

01:06We will also help gatekeepers to build capabilities,

01:11such as training in what to look out for in identifying suspicious transactions,

01:16and to have a better understanding of their obligations.

01:20Singapore Police Force

01:24The Singapore Police Force will also lead training across agencies

01:28to strengthen each agency's sense-making capabilities, leveraging technology and data analytics.

01:35This data-sharing interface, NAVIGATE,

01:37otherwise known as National Anti-Money Laundering Verification Interface for Government Agencies Threat Evaluation,

01:44will be led by the Singapore Police Force

01:46to allow agencies to seamlessly screen against each other's databases

01:51and more promptly assess entities of concern.

02:00COSMIC actually is a digital platform that both MAS

02:04as well as our six major banks in Singapore have co-developed.

02:09It effectively allows for these six major banks,

02:13or what we call participating financial institutions,

02:16to share information on customers,

02:18which could potentially exhibit financial crime concerns or financial crime risks.

02:23So it's sharing within the banks.

02:26But because of this sensitivity of client information, as all of us would appreciate,

02:32MAS would have to be very careful in calibrating the rollout.

02:37So currently there are no plans to extend COSMIC to entities beyond the financial sector.

02:42MAS will review the information from COSMIC as part of MAS's overall surveillance efforts

02:47and also distill the key information for sharing with government agencies.

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