Debated in Parliament on 23 Sep 2025.
Mr Fadli Fawzi asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in relation to the same financial institutions which are penalised for breaching anti-money laundering (AML) requirements in 2016/2017 and 2025 (a) how do the breaches differ for each incident; (b) whether the Government considers these institutions to have sufficiently strengthened their AML controls after 2016/2017; and (c) if so, why are these institutions penalised again in 2025.
As announced on 4 July 2025, nine financial institutions (FIs) which have breached their anti-money laundering obligations were subject to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regulatory action.
In respect of FIs that were penalised in both 2016/2017 and 2025, their earlier breaches were largely due to their failures in transaction monitoring, arising out of deficiencies in their relevant systems and controls. Following the issuance of financial penalties in 2016/2017, they have remediated these deficiencies. In 2025, MAS found breaches by these FIs in other areas, such as customer risk assessment, establishment and corroboration of customers' source of wealth and post-suspicious transaction report follow-up. While MAS also found some breaches relating to transaction monitoring, they were due to inconsistent implementation by the FI's employees. MAS noted that that the FI's transaction monitoring systems and controls were generally in place.
The FIs involved have accepted that they had fallen short and have implemented remediation measures, including stronger oversight of staff tasked with implementing controls and checks.
Criminals continuously shift their tactics to evade controls and FIs must adapt their control measures in tandem.
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