Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore, said he was disappointed with the recent high profile lapses in anti-money laundering and breaches of regulations, that were picked up in Singapore.
Ravi Menon was speaking at a media conference on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) annual report.
He commented that Singapore’s financial centre had grown significantly and today was regarded as one of the top five centres in the world. MAS’ role is to work closely with the industry to ensure that Singapore’s financial centre is robust and resilient; clean and trusted.
No Compromise on Integrity
Upholding high standards of integrity in the financial industry is an absolute priority for MAS. There can be no compromise on this Menon commented.
«The ongoing probe into financial transactions related to 1MDB is a stark reminder to us that the risks are real. It would not be proper for me to say anything about the ongoing investigations beyond the joint statement issued last week. It would also not be proper for me to comment on any specific institution beyond MAS’ statement last week because the supervisory examinations are still ongoing and we have to be fair to the institutions. The two statements last week are unprecedented. We have already said a lot more publicly than we usually do when investigations and reviews have not been completed yet,» Menon said.
Collateral Damage
«There is no doubt that the recent findings have made a dent in our reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre,» he added.
Addressing the termination of the Swiss Bank BSI Menon said that the closure of BSI Bank had shown that the MAS will not hesitate to take the most punitive actions where warranted.
More Intrusive
He also mentioned that they will be centralising enforcement functions across the MAS in a new Enforcement Department.
Menon explained that the MAS will be establishing a dedicated AML Department to consolidate existing supervisory resources and take a more targeted approach to combat money laundering and illicit financing risks.
«We will conduct more intrusive inspections of Financial Institutions s identified as facing higher risks. We will increase our engagements with the industry to share perspectives on emerging risks and typologies, as well as best practices on how to mitigate them,» he concluded.
