Why are money launderers leaving Singapore?

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank, is working with six major commercial banks in Singapore to develop a digital platform, COSMIC, which stands for “Collaborative Sharing of Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing (ML/TF) Information and Cases”. . Namely, DBS Bank, Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank), United Overseas Bank (UOB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), Citibank and HSBC.

COSMIC primarily focuses on the three major financial crime risks in commercial banking. These are, misuse of legal persons, misuse of trade finance for illegal purposes, and proliferation (such as nuclear and chemical) financing.

This digital platform will allow financial institutions to securely share with each other, information about customers who exhibit a number of “red flags” that could indicate potential financial crime concerns if thresholds are met. Are. COSMIC will make it easier for financial institutions to detect and stop criminal activity.

On 9 May the Parliament of Singapore passed the Financial Services and Markets (Amendment) Bill 2023, which deals with this initiative. Under this new law, people hiding under offshore accounts or shell companies will be identified. COSMIC will be operational in the second half of 2024, and once it opens people who have made fortunes there using other people’s identities and transacting money laundered in banks in their name or anonymously, They will be in danger.

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