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Singapore has hit banks and asset managers, including UBS, Citi and Julius Baer with his second largest collective fine ever in connection with a case with money that dented the clean reputation of the city state and sets a pall about the asset management sector.
Negen financiële instellingen ontvingen een collectieve boete van S $ 27,45 miljoen (US $ 21,5 miljoen), het grootste cijfer sinds de boetes in de 1MDB-zaak, over wat de regulator van Singapore ‘arme en inconsistente implementatie’ van controles noemde in een US $ 2bn geld-la-la-la-la-la-la-laadwijk.
The case, which was linked to online gambling in Asia, led to the convictions of 10 Chinese nationals and island -wide attacks of assets, including gold bars and luxury cars.
It cast a shadow over the ambitions of Singapore to be a leading hub for asset management and underlined the challenge of opening up foreign wealth and the enforcement of strict anti-money laundering practices.
“Like other important international financial centers, Singapore is exposed to risks for money gain,” says Ho Hern Shin, deputy director of Financial Supervision of Singapore’s monetary authority.
“MAS will work closely with financial institutions to promote a more consistent implementation of [anti-money laundering] measures. Where there are serious shortcomings by FIS and their employees, MAS will not hesitate to take strong action. “
In her report, the regulator said that the ‘shortcomings’ found in how financial institutions have carried out money -wasising risk assessments for new customers, how they confirmed the source of wealth of customers and how they enter into transactions as ‘suspicious’ through their own systems.
Credit Suisse, who has since been taken over by UBS, received the biggest fine, in $ 5.8 million. UBS was hit with S $ 3 million and Citi with S $ 2.6 million.
The supervisor also mentioned managers and relationship managers at United Overseas Bank and smaller issues for issues, including not establishing the source of the wealth of their customers.
United Overseas Bank said it “acknowledges[d] and accept[ed] MAS ‘findings with regard to the identified points for improvement ”.
“In the past two years we have implemented fast remedial actions to tackle the shortcomings that have been identified after an extensive internal assessment, including the driving of our transaction monitoring and customer due diligence processes,” said it.
Blue Ocean Invest, an asset manager, said that “it has recognized the findings” and “had implemented measures to improve internal policy and procedures”.
“During the inspection we worked fully with the MAS and a detailed remediation plan to tackle the infringements has been implemented,” said a spokesperson for Trident Trust.
LGT, Julius Baer and UBS said that they also recognized the findings of the regulator and had fully cooperated with authorities during their investigation.
A spokesperson for Citi Singapore said that the bank “strengthened our customer on board and monitoring processes and continues to work closely with the authorities to protect the integrity of the financial system and to improve the financial crime risk and checks”.
Data visualization by Haohsiang Ko