The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has cracked down on six banks and three other financial institutions (FIs), levying fines amounting to 27.45 million) for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) deficiencies. This regulatory action follows a major money laundering investigation from August 2023.
Credit Suisse Singapore Branch received the stiffest penalty at 5.8 million), which included breaches from 2017 to 2013 related to certain US customer accounts. United Overseas Bank (UOB) followed with a 5.6 million) fine. Other banks penalized were UBS, Citi, Bank Julius Baer & Co., and LGT Bank (Singapore). Capital market service licence holders UOB Kay Hian and Blue Ocean Invest, along with Trident Trust Company (Singapore), also faced penalties.
MAS found that employees across these FIs fell short of the required AML/CFT standards. Common issues included:
Inadequate risk rating: Five FIs (Bank Julius Baer, Blue Ocean Invest, Citi, Credit Suisse, and UOB Kay Hian) failed to properly assess the money laundering risks of some customers.
Missed red flags: All nine FIs did not detect or follow up on significant discrepancies in customer information, which should have questioned sources of wealth.
Insufficient review of suspicious transactions: Eight of the nine FIs (all except Blue Ocean Invest) failed to adequately review transactions their own systems flagged as suspicious.
Delayed risk mitigation: UOB and UOB Kay Hian specifically failed to implement timely risk mitigation measures.
