MyComplianceOffice Blog

Singapore’s Parliament has passed the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Other Matters Bill, a crucial step in enhancing the nation’s defences against financial crimes. The Bill, introduced by Singapore’s Second Minister for Home Affairs, Josephine Teo, is designed to strengthen the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) framework, ensuring it keeps pace with global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Teo explains during her second reading of the Bill, “We have been distilling the learning points through careful studies of the changing modus operandi, as well as the new standards promulgated by FATF.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is taking aim. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) are squarely in the regulator’s sights with three recent updates.

MAS’ latest enforcement report (January 2022 and June 2023) detailed $12.96m in civil penalties imposed and $7.88m in financial fines and compositions imposed - the highest since MAS Enforcement Reports began their publication in 2019.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) is a United States law and prohibits firms and individuals from paying bribes to foreign officials in pursuit of business deals. In the past years, we haven’t seen many FCPA-related trials, however, in 2019 we saw the FCPA convicting four defendants in three trials.

We have selected some of the AML news highlights from the past 21 days across the globe and condensed them into this short blog post.