Singapore strengthens regulations to combat money laundering

The tightened framework follows the formation of a ministerial committee to review rules after the discovery of a massive money laundering network last year, which led to the seizure of more $2.2 billion of assets and the jailing of 10 foreigners for laundering vast sums of money in the Asian financial hub.

In August, two ex-bankers were charged with aiding those convicted using forged documents.

Singapore intends to flag and strike off companies that are inactive, increase data sharing across government agencies, and from next week educate non-regulated sectors such as car dealerships on what constitute suspicious transactions that should be flagged to authorities.

The measures, designed to prevent and detect money laundering and help enforce laws, will be rolled out progressively and will be in place in around a year's time, authorities said.

Some changes have already been introduced since the money laundering ring was exposed, including laws making it easier for law enforcement to prosecute such offences and lowering the cash threshold for Singapore's two casinos to perform customer due diligence to S$4,000 dollars ($3,087) from S$10,000.

Indranee Rajah, the second minister for finance and chair of the inter-ministerial committee, said its recommendations have been calibrated to deters money laundering but did not place undue burden on legitimate businesses.

"This is a fine balancing act because for every step and every measure, there are trade-offs. The system cannot be too lax, but at the same time, it cannot be too stringent," she said.

"We do not want to stifle genuine, law-abiding businesses, it has to be just right and allow Singapore to be a free and open economy, while at the same time being inhospitable to illicit funds," she added.

She said there was no silver bullet to for money laundering and all financial centres and business hubs faced such risk, but vowed decisive action against offenders, including when they find new ways of laundering illicit wealth.