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Singapore has hit banks and wealth managers together with UBS, Citi and Julius Baer with its second-largest collective penalty ever in relation to a money-laundering case that dented the city-state’s clear popularity and forged a pall over its wealth administration sector.

9 monetary establishments acquired a collective penalty of S$27.45mn (US$21.5mn), the most important determine since penalties within the 1MDB case, over what Singapore’s regulator referred to as “poor and inconsistent implementation” of controls in a US$2bn money-laundering scandal.

The case, which was linked to on-line playing in Asia, led to the convictions of 10 Chinese language nationals and island-wide seizures of property together with gold bars and luxurious automobiles.

It forged a shadow over Singapore’s ambitions to be a number one wealth administration hub and underscored the problem of opening as much as overseas wealth whereas implementing strict anti-money laundering guidelines.

“Like other major international financial centres, Singapore is exposed to money-laundering risks,” mentioned Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director for monetary supervision on the Financial Authority of Singapore.

“MAS will work closely with financial institutions to promote more consistent implementation of [anti-money laundering] measures. Where there are serious failings by FIs and their employees, MAS will not hesitate to take firm action.”

In its report, the regulator mentioned it discovered “deficiencies” in how monetary establishments carried out money-laundering danger assessments for brand new shoppers, how they corroborated shoppers’ supply of wealth and the way they dealt with transactions flagged as “suspicious” by their very own programs.

Credit score Suisse, which has since been acquired by UBS, acquired the largest single penalty, at S$5.8mn. UBS was hit with S$3mn and Citi with S$2.6mn.

The regulator additionally named executives and relationship managers at United Abroad Financial institution and smaller establishments for points together with a failure to determine their prospects’ supply of wealth.

United Abroad Financial institution mentioned it “acknowledge[d] and accept[ed] MAS’ findings with regard to the identified areas for improvement”.

“Over the past two years, we have implemented prompt remedial actions to address the deficiencies identified after a comprehensive internal review, including stepping up on our transaction monitoring and customer due diligence processes,” it mentioned.

Blue Ocean Make investments, an asset supervisor, mentioned it “acknowledges the findings” and had “implemented measures to enhance internal policies and procedures”.

“We co-operated fully with the MAS throughout the inspection, and a detailed remediation plan to address the breaches has been implemented,” mentioned a spokesperson for Trident Belief.

LGT, Julius Baer and UBS mentioned additionally they acknowledged the regulator’s findings and had co-operated absolutely with authorities throughout their investigation.

A spokesperson for Citi Singapore mentioned the financial institution “strengthened our client onboarding and monitoring processes and continue to work closely with the authorities to protect the integrity of the financial system and enhance financial crime risk and controls measures”.

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