DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta commented about Singapore’s headline money laundering scandal, noting that the bank has tightened controls.
In the third quarter of 2023, DBS recorded S$197 million ($146 million) of specific allowances «prudently taken for exposures linked to a recent money laundering case in Singapore», referring to the headline scandal involving more than S$2.8 billion in assets seized.
According to CEO Piyush Gupta during a post-earnings briefing, the bank has about S$100 million in exposure to the case, mainly from financing properties to one of the 10 arrested suspects, and had also flagged suspicious transactions via reports to authorities. While Gupta noted that the bank would tighten anti-money laundering processes carefully, particularly for multinational passport holders, he also said that flows were not expected to suffer.
DBS is amongst the lenders that have been found to be creditors to the laundering suspect following their arrest in August. According to previous filings, the bank registered four charges in August 2021 to Aiqinhai Investment – a company with 40-year old suspect Su Haijin as its director and sole shareholder.
