Credit Suisse officials highly regret to have fallen short of the MAS' and the bank's standards. The firm wants to donate all the profits from the questionable transactions to a worthy cause.
«Credit Suisse takes a very serious view of its obligations in the prevention of money laundering and is firmly committed to upholding the high standards of the Singapore financial center,» a Credit Suisse spokesperson said to finews.asia on Tuesday after The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) imposed financial penalties on Credit Suisse and Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB).
Credit Suisse and UOB have to pay S$700,000 and S$900,000, respectively, for breaches of MAS Notice 626-Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
Support Local Community
«Notwithstanding that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) review findings show there are no pervasive anti-money laundering control weaknesses, we acknowledge the outcome of the review and regret that we have fallen short of the MAS’ and our own high standards,» added the spokesperson.
In recognition of this, Credit Suisse said it will donate all profits from the transactions in question to a worthy cause in support of the local community.
Further Measures Taken
Credit Suisse said it has invested in people and systems to strengthen its anti-money laundering processes and controls in recent years. The bank has co-operated fully with the MAS and taken further measures to address the issues identified in its review, according to a statement sent on Tuesday.
UOB Follows Suit
«UOB takes the importance of rigour in customer due diligence seriously and accepts the findings by the MAS. We have instituted measures to address the areas of concern, including enhancing our training programme to raise risk and control awareness among our staff,» local bank United Overseas Bank, a bank spokesperson told finews.asia.
UOB also said that the profits associated with the lapses will be donated to charity.
