AFP, Singapore :
Singapore’s central bank on Monday formally launched a unit to fight money laundering, strengthening the financial hub’s safeguards against illicit fund flows.
Officials of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have said plans to create the special unit predated a continuing scandal involving state fund 1MDB in neighbouring Malaysia and banks operating in Singapore.
“But these recent developments have indeed underscored the merits of bringing together supervisory resources from across MAS to give a centralised focus on combating money laundering,” a spokesman for the MAS said in June when it announced the creation of the unit.
Singapore last year opened an investigation into fund flows linked to 1MDB. In May this year it expelled Switzerland’s BSI Bank for “gross misconduct” related to the Malaysian fund.
Last month Singapore revealed it had seized nearly $180 million in assets through its investigations into suspected fraud and money-laundering linked to 1MDB.
Singapore’s central bank on Monday formally launched a unit to fight money laundering, strengthening the financial hub’s safeguards against illicit fund flows.
Officials of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have said plans to create the special unit predated a continuing scandal involving state fund 1MDB in neighbouring Malaysia and banks operating in Singapore.
“But these recent developments have indeed underscored the merits of bringing together supervisory resources from across MAS to give a centralised focus on combating money laundering,” a spokesman for the MAS said in June when it announced the creation of the unit.
Singapore last year opened an investigation into fund flows linked to 1MDB. In May this year it expelled Switzerland’s BSI Bank for “gross misconduct” related to the Malaysian fund.
Last month Singapore revealed it had seized nearly $180 million in assets through its investigations into suspected fraud and money-laundering linked to 1MDB.
