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.
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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.