The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has recorded more than $20 million in penalties in its 4th Enforcement Report, along with its enforcement priorities for 2023-2024. Among other measures, the report details high-profile enforcement actions against four financial institutions for […]
Asia Pacific
During the 2023 Australian Financial Review (AFR) Cyber Summit, former Australian Transaction Reporting and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) CEO Paul Jevtovic urged an approach targeting the root causes of financial crime alongside recent regulator initiatives to compensate scam victims. “[W]e are […]
From navigating regulatory complexities to coming up against fierce competition with limited financial resources, early-stage fintechs face an array of challenges. And yet, despite these hurdles, startups play a crucial role in improving the fintech ecosystem with their disruptive ideas […]
Australian police have arrested three individuals on charges related to romance fraud. The suspects, two women and a man, allegedly attracted three victims using a newspaper dating ad posing as a widowed 50-year-old woman. According to authorities, the victims paid […]
After a series of high-end property raids in August recovered close to $1 billion in laundered assets, Singapore’s Council for Estate Agents (CEA) is investigating several property agents for potential involvement in illicit transactions. The CEA responded to the raids […]
Authorities in Singapore have made ten arrests, seizing illegal assets worth over S$900 million in simultaneous raids nationwide. The raids were the culmination of a forgery and money laundering (ML) investigation facilitated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and […]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is proposing a rule that would close AML loopholes by standardizing licensing exemption criteria for single-family offices (SFOs). According to the criteria, firms would have to be family-owned and subject to more uniform AML/CFT […]
Malaysian deputy governor Marzunisham Omar has announced that the country’s central bank received around 250,000 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) in 2022 – representing a 30 percent increase from 2021. According to Omar, 70 percent of the reports pertained to the […]
Filipino President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has mandated all government offices and departments implement a revised anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) strategy. The revised plan aims to “allow the Philippines to exit” the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey […]
The background of PSN02 lies in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) commitment to maintaining the integrity and security of the financial system against money laundering and terrorism financing risks. By implementing the notice, MAS aims to strengthen the overall […]
On July 3, 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced new investor protection measures for Digital Payment Token (DPT) service providers. The measures intend to address two primary risks: Protection from misuse or loss of customer assets. Provisions to […]
In a report released on June 27, 2023, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revealed massive anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulatory shortcomings for the virtual asset sector in most surveyed countries worldwide. The report aggregated data […]