The bank was find for breaches in customer on-boarding and in the ongoing monitoring of business relations with customers between March 2014 and September 2018.
The Singapore branch of the Swiss wealth manager was fined S$1 million ($750,000) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for «serious breaches» of AML/CFT requirements, the regulator said on Wednesday.
According to MAS, the bank failed to establish the source of wealth and source of funds of customers and beneficial owners of the customers. It also failed to adequately inquire into the background and purpose of unusually large or unusual patterns of customer transactions that «had no obvious economic purpose.»
Remediation Measures
The penalty amount took into consideration the bank's remediation actions to address deficiencies that were identified by MAS. The regulator has also instructed the bank to appoint an independent party to validate the effectiveness of its remediation measures and report the findings to MAS.
«Compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in the markets in which we operate is of the highest priority for Bank J. Safra Sarasin,» a spokesperson from bank said in a statement shared with finews.asia.
Strong Oversight Necessary
«Given the potential complexity of private bank clients’ profiles, it is particularly important that clients’ representations regarding their source of wealth and funds are scrutinised and corroborated by objective evidence,» Loo Siew Yee, MAS assistant managing director (policy, payments and financial crime), said in a statement.
Note – Article updated to include quote from J. Safra Sarasin.
