Singapore’s monetary authority moves new bill against money-laundering, terrorism financing

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) moved a new bill for first reading in parliament, which aims at combating money laundering and financing of terrorism, the MAS said in a press release on Monday.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore Bill (MAS Bill) was moved by Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

MAS said it brought up this new bill because the large size of the financial sector, high volume of transactions and wide international reach inevitably exposes Singapore to its share of money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

The new bill sets out requirements for financial institutions to conduct customer due diligence and retain such records.

And to enhance cooperation between MAS and foreign anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervisors in line with international standards, the new bill will introduce a new part, which enables MAS to share information with foreign AML/CFT supervisors for supervising their foreign institutions on AML/CFT issues, as well as make related inquiries on behalf of foreign AML/CFT supervisors. All these measures are subject to strong safeguards, MAS stressed.

MAS also explained that assistance will be rendered in relation to bona fide requests only and the foreign AML/CLT supervisor has to undertake not to use the information for any purpose other than what is specified in the request, as well as to protect the confidentiality of information obtained.

For domestic authorities, it can also provide information in connection with the investigation or enforcement action of an offense, or any supervisory action taken against a person regulated by that authority for the contravention of (AML/CFT) requirements.