UBS, Citi and other banks hit by $21.5mn penalty over Singapore money-laundering case

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.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 hit the city-state’s clear fame and solid a pall over its wealth administration sector.9 monetary establishments obtained 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 solid 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 different main worldwide monetary centres, Singapore is uncovered to money-laundering dangers,” mentioned Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director for monetary supervision on the Financial Authority of Singapore.“MAS will work carefully with monetary establishments to advertise extra constant implementation of [anti-money laundering] measures. The place there are severe failings by FIs and their workers, MAS is not going to hesitate to take agency motion.”In its report, the regulator mentioned it discovered “deficiencies” in how monetary establishments carried out money-laundering threat assessments for brand new purchasers, how they corroborated purchasers’ supply of wealth and the way they dealt with transactions flagged as “suspicious” by their very own techniques.Credit score Suisse, which has since been acquired by UBS, obtained the largest single penalty, at S$5.8mn. UBS was hit with S$3mn and Citi with S$2.6mn.Some content material couldn’t load. Test your web connection or browser settings.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 clients’ supply of wealth.United Abroad Financial institution mentioned it “acknowledge[d] and settle for[ed] MAS’ findings with regard to the recognized areas for enchancment”.“Over the previous two years, now we have carried out immediate remedial actions to deal with the deficiencies recognized after a complete inner assessment, together with stepping up on our transaction monitoring and buyer due diligence processes,” it mentioned.Blue Ocean Make investments, an asset supervisor, mentioned it “acknowledges the findings” and had “carried out measures to reinforce inner insurance policies and procedures”.“We co-operated totally with the MAS all through the inspection, and an in depth remediation plan to deal with the breaches has been carried out,” mentioned a spokesperson for Trident Belief.LGT, Julius Baer and UBS mentioned in addition they acknowledged the regulator’s findings and had co-operated totally with authorities throughout their investigation.Citi didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.Knowledge visualisation by Haohsiang Ko