Following the revelation of the biggest money laundering case in Singapore, the government plans to form an inter-ministerial committee.
The Singapore government will strengthen its anti-money laundering regime by setting up an inter-ministerial committee. Indranee Rajah, the second minister for finance of Singapore will lead the committee.
«We have been undertaking ongoing reviews in the various sectors, to tighten our anti-money laundering regime. Learning from this case, we will consider further measures to strengthen our regime,» said the second minister for home affairs Josephine Teo in her speech to the parliament.
Four Main Areas
The inter-ministerial committee will involve the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Ministry of Home Affair (MHA), the Ministry of Law (MinLaw), the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). The committee will continue to oversee the whole-of-government anti-money laundering efforts, Indranee Rajah said in her speech.
Meanwhile, the committee will focus on four main areas namely: to better prevent corporate structures from being abused; how the financial institutions can enhance their controls and collaborate more; how other players can help to better guard against money laundering; and how to centralize and strengthen monitoring.
Unregulated High-Value Assets
Furthermore, suspects in Singapore’s money-laundering case were found to have high-value assets such as luxury cars, bags, liquor and ornaments. Those are unregulated assets and the Singapore government will examine the need to extend anti-money laundering requirements to the new classes of assets, Teo said.
Aside from these, the government will also tighten the verification checks at various points in the immigration process. However, the new measures required moderation, Teo added.
