Combatting Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing

MAS is part of the whole-of-government (WoG) taskforce which continually reviews and enhances the effectiveness of Singapore’s anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism and proliferation (AML/CFT) framework

As part of the WoG AML/CFT efforts, MAS published the following risk assessments and national strategy documents over the past year.

• Risk assessments, which highlight key threats, vulnerabilities and outline relevant mitigation measures to synthesise risk observations and deepen collective understanding of risks by relevant sectors:
• Updated the Terrorism Financing (TF) National Risk Assessment (NRA) and National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT);
• Published the Proliferation Financing (PF) NRA and Counter-PF Strategy; and
• Published the thematic risk assessments in relation to (i) Legal Persons, (ii) Legal Arrangements, and (iii) Virtual Assets.

• Strategy papers:
• Published Singapore’s National AML Strategy, which sets out Singapore’s strategic approach to address money laundering risks, through the three key pillars - Prevent, Detect and Enforce - and supported by three building blocks of (i) Whole-of-Society Coordination and Collaboration; (ii) Legal and Regulatory Framework; and (iii) International Cooperation; and
• Published the National Asset Recovery Strategy, which sets out a comprehensive approach towards the recovery of illicit funds and assets from criminals, and the forfeiture of these assets or their return to victims.

MAS also actively supported the review of Singapore’s AML framework by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), which drew lessons from the major money laundering case in August 2023.

MAS strengthens anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls for organised market operators

13 January 2025

MAS issued Notice SFA02-N05 and accompanying guidelines to introduce AML/CFT requirements for approved exchanges and recognised market operators to perform AML/CFT checks on market participants that are not regulated financial institutions, and that trade directly on their organised markets. 

MAS continues to work with the financial industry to combat money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risk

Ongoing

MAS continues efforts to raise financial institutions (FIs)’ risk awareness and to guide them in enhancing their controls in relation to various key risk areas, through the issuance of guidance, information and best practice papers.

• MAS issued an information paper on supervisory expectations and good practices noted from recent anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) inspections. The paper provides guidance on key AML/CFT controls including customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring and risk mitigation that FIs can benchmark themselves against.
• MAS published guidance to FIs on good practices observed in relation to the audit of AML/CFT policies, procedures and controls to enhance the effectiveness of FIs’ AML/CFT audits.
• MAS published guidance to FIs on the establishment of source of wealth of their customers in a risk-proportionate and reasonable manner.