AML/CFT Industry Partnership (ACIP)
Access ACIP best practice papers for guarding against trade-based money laundering and the misuse of company structures for illicit purposes.
Anti-Money Laundering
Singapore supports global efforts to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. Maintaining a clean and trusted financial centre is important given our role as an international business hub. Find out more about MAS' regime to combat financial crime.
Overview
Combating money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing are priorities for MAS. We require our financial institutions to have sufficiently robust controls to detect and deter such illicit activities. We also partner the industry to bolster their defences, by engaging them on emerging risks, evolving criminal typologies and industry best practices. MAS is firmly committed to safeguarding Singapore as a clean and trusted financial centre.
Sustained effort and unstinting vigilance will be needed on the part of industry players to manage the risk of illicit finance and keep our financial centre clean.
- Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS
MAS Annual Report 2016/2017
Our Role in International Standard Setting
Singapore is an active member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard setting and oversight body for AML/CFT. As co-chair of its Policy Development Group, Singapore collaborates closely with fellow AML/CFT policy makers and supervisors to develop international standards. We are also a founding member of the Asia / Pacific Group on Money Laundering.
Regulations and Guidance
The controls that MAS requires of financial institutions include the need to identify and know their customers (including beneficial owners), conduct regular account reviews, and monitor and report any suspicious transaction.
The requirements and expectations on financial institutions are set out in MAS' AML/CFT Notices, Guidelines, and other Guidances on MAS' supervisory expectations.
Financial institutions should also refer to:
- AML/CFT announcements and media releases for information on high-risk jurisdictions.
- AML/CFT Guidance Papers issued by international bodies, including the FATF.
Financial institutions must also comply with MAS regulations which give effect to obligations arising from the United Nations Security Council Resolutions to combat proliferation financing. They must also comply with obligations to combat terrorism financing, such as those found under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act. More information can be found here.
Under the MAS Act , a financial institution that fails or refuses to comply with any requirements of its applicable AML/CFT notice is guilty of an offence and will be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1 million for each offence.
What's New
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Effective Practices to Detect and Mitigate the Risk from Misuse of Legal Persons
Sets out MAS’ supervisory expectations of financial institutions’ (“FIs”) controls to address the misuse of legal persons risks and typologies observed.
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June 2019 FATF Statement
On 21 June 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), of which Singapore is a member, issued an updated Public Statement that highlights the strategic deficiencies in the anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iran. On DPRK,...
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MAS issues Prohibition Orders against Mr Paris Michele for dishonest conduct
3-year Prohibition Orders were issued against Mr Paris Michele, a former representative of UBS AG, Singapore branch, for dishonest conduct. He had forged letters and falsified emails relating to background checks during his employment with UBS.
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"Strengthening Trust in Finance" - Opening Address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore, at Symposium on Asian Banking and Finance on 3 June 2019
Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS, spoke on three things the industry and regulators can do together to strengthen trust in finance, with a focus on what Singapore is doing.
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Response to BT commentary and letter on "Disclosures on 1MDB probes" - The Business Times, 18 and 23 April 2019
In response to a commentary and a letter in The Business Times suggesting for MAS to disclose more on regulatory matters while investigations are ongoing, MAS said it has made timely, relevant, and adequate disclosures of its regulatory findings and actions relating to the 1MDB investigations.