Singapore can do more to fight money laundering, says report

Transnational threats need to be addressed.

An independent watch dog lauded Singapore for improvements made in combating money laundering, but says it needs to pursue more complex transnational cases.

"Singapore has a reasonable understanding of its ML risks and has taken steps to mitigate them. Nevertheless, moderate gaps remain. In particular the nexus between transnational threats, the inherent risks faced by Singapore as one of the world’s largest financial centres, and vulnerabilities within the system is not sufficiently reflected in Singapore’s National Risk Assessment," says the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The report was based on an inspection last December, after the FATF place Singapore in a review process in 2008, expressing convern over its implementation of measures to combat money laundering, particularly for cases originating from abroad.

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