Singapore's regulator fines StanChart over money laundering breaches
The MAS has fined Standard Chartered for breaches of its anti-money laundering and countering of financing terrorism requirements.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed significant financial penalties on Standard Chartered's Singapore operations over regulatory breaches, it announced Monday.
According to the MAS, it has imposed fines of SGD5.2 million (USD3.9 million) on the Singapore Branch of Standard Chartered and SGD1.2 million on Standard Chartered Trust for AML/CFT breaches.
The MAS said that these breaches occurred when trust accounts of the Branch's customers were transferred from Guernsey to Singapore from December 2015 to January 2016.
In its review, MAS said it found the risk management and controls in relation to the transfers to be "unsatisfactory".
The transfers occurred shortly before Guernsey's implementation of the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters.
"The timing of the transfers raised questions of whether the clients were attempting to avoid their CRS reporting obligations," said MAS.
MAS, however, noted that the Singapore Branch had pro-actively notified it of its internal review on the trust accounts and that management "showed strong commitment" to address the gaps identified by it.
It also noted that both firms have taken the appropriate remedial measures to improve their AML/CFT risk management and controls.
"We regret that we fell short of our own standards in adequately mitigating the risks involving some clients who might have attempted to avoid reporting obligations under the Common Reporting Standard by transferring their trusteeships between December 2015 and January 2016," a spokesperson from Standard Chartered said in a statement. "We take this matter very seriously."
"We proactively reported it to the authorities, conducted a thorough review of the relevant trust structures, and made structural and procedural changes to ensure that our employees are better equipped to identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks. Reinforcing the importance of a robust risk management culture, we have set the tone from the top and continue to cultivate a strong sense of risk awareness across the Bank. We continue to take ongoing rigorous action to strengthen our controls and culture, including further enhancing our training programmes to ensure that relevant, timely training is provided to enable us to stay updated with the latest developments. We will continue to monitor, review and strengthen these measures to bolster our overall defence against potential financial crime risks."
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