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SINGAPORE – Various banks in Singapore handled around US $ 4.5 billion (S $ 6.13 billion) in suspicious transactions between 2000 and 2017, with DBS Bank, CIMB Bank and Deutsche Bank among those processing the largest sums of such funds here.
This is based on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) findings on leaked files, comprising so-called suspicious activity reports, from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the United States.
The consortium noted that, in nearly 20 years, Singapore received about $ 3 billion and sent $ 1.5 billion in 1,781 suspicious transactions.
In total, the ICIJ reported on Sunday (September 20) that the files contained information on transactions worth more than US $ 2 trillion between 1999 and 2017, which the internal compliance departments of financial institutions identified as suspicious.
Experts told The Straits Times that filing suspicious activity reports does not translate into wrongdoing. In addition, banks and financial institutions are required to flag unusual transactions so that regulators can track them, they added.
For example, an account that typically sees small transactions receiving an unusually large deposit of money could show up on banks’ radars, said Song Seng Wun, a private banking economist at CIMB.
Alternatively, if a bank customer who has $ 1 million in his account decides to transfer all his money to another bank, that transaction could also appear as “suspicious,” he added.
“Such reports are quite normal and are aimed at helping banks build a culture in which anti-money laundering activities are taken seriously,” Song said.
Associate Professor Lawrence Loh from the National University of Singapore Business School said: “The disclosure so far has focused more on movements than applications of funds.
“In fact, there can be a wide spectrum of possibilities for applications, including those related to corruption or even as drastic as criminal support,” he added.
In Singapore, the Department of Commercial Affairs (CAD) publishes the number of suspicious transaction reports it received in its annual report. The CAD is the police unit that deals with white collar crimes.
CAD’s Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office received 32,660 reports in 2018, down 8% from 35,471 reports in 2017, based on CAD’s 2018 annual report.
CAD noted that banks submitted the highest number of suspicious transaction reports, 16,314, in 2018, followed by 6,510 reports submitted by casinos and 4,823 reports submitted by money changers and remittance agents.
The consortium released a list of Singaporean banks involved in the allegedly illicit transfers on Sunday, based on more than 2,100 reports worth about $ 35 billion, which were submitted by some 90 financial institutions. A report can contain multiple transactions.
The list “shows cases where sufficient details were available about originating and beneficiary banks, and is designed to illustrate how potentially dirty money flows from one country to another around the world, through banks based in the United States.” said the ICIJ.
The consortium reported that five global banks appeared most frequently in the leaked documents: HSBC Bank, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Bank of New York Mellon.
In Singapore, DBS Bank was listed as having sent $ 596.8 million and received $ 228.3 million in 461 suspicious transactions between 2000 and 2017.
It was noted that CIMB Bank sent US $ 250.4 million and received US $ 34.3 million in 294 suspicious transactions, while Deutsche Bank sent US $ 224.3 million and received US $ 62 million in 19 suspicious transactions in the same period .
A DBS spokesperson told ST that the bank has “zero tolerance for bad actors who abuse the financial system” and is steadfast in cooperating with authorities in seizing funds and disrupting criminal networks.
“Outside of sanctions on names or specific account freezes, it is generally very difficult to delay or intercept money in transit due to the impact on legitimate business, so the normal process, which occurs behind the scenes, involves subsequent investigations to establish suspicions, based on where necessary actions are taken, “he added.
CIMB Singapore “operates in accordance with the anti-money laundering laws, regulations and guidelines issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore,” a bank spokesperson said in response to inquiries. He added that the bank is investigating the matter.
Deutsche Bank noted that it has invested billions of dollars to further support the authorities in this effort. “Naturally, this leads to higher levels of detection,” he said in a statement.
The German bank has “dedicated significant resources to strengthening our controls and we are very focused on meeting our responsibilities and obligations,” he added.
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