THE government will examine if Singapore needs to extend its anti-money laundering requirements to cover assets beyond what the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has recommended.
“A number of the suspects had purchased high-value assets such as luxury cars, bags, liquor and ornaments. These were among the assets that were seized, or issued with a prohibition of disposal order,” said Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo said in Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 3).
They are currently not regulated unlike, for example, precious stones and precious metals, Teo said.
She was delivering a ministerial statement on the S$2.8 billion anti-money laundering bust, and responding to questions of what measures are in place to detect money laundering through the use of high value items.
Teo said, however, that the government will have to carefully evaluate any such measures, so it does not end up “unduly inconveniencing legitimate businesses and customers”.
She said that Singapore’s anti-money laundering requirements comply with international standards set by FATF.
Singapore’s requirements cover both financial and non-financial institutions, including dealers of precious metals and precious stones.
Such dealers must perform customer due diligence before they conduct transactions involving cash exceeding S$20,000, or when there are reasons to suspect money laundering.
Cash transaction reports must be filed for transactions in cash exceeding S$20,000.
Since 2021, Teo said, 96 enforcement actions have been taken against precious metals and precious stones dealers for failure to comply with these requirements.
