SINGAPORE: Swiss-Asia Financial Services (SAFS) has been penalised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) due to serious breaches in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations.
As a consequence, MAS penalised SAFS S$2.5 million.
The regulatory action comes as MAS identified significant lapses in SAFS’ adherence to AML/CFT requirements between September 2015 and October 2018.
Despite experiencing substantial business growth during this period, SAFS failed to implement adequate controls to mitigate AML/CFT risks. The breaches included:
- Failure to factor relevant risk elements in its enterprise-wide risk assessment.
- Failure to conduct customer due diligence (CDD) measures before initiating business relations.
- Failure to scrutinise third-party transactions in customers’ accounts.
- Insufficient identification and assessment of customers posing higher money laundering or terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks.
- Failure to report suspicious transactions despite indications of potential involvement in financial crimes.
- Lack of internal audits for assessing the efficiency of AML/CFT controls.
MAS has reprimanded SAFS’ CEO, Olivier Pascal Mivelaz, and its COO, Steve Knabl, for failing to comply with MAS’ AML/CFT requirements.
Mr Mivelaz and Mr Knabl were specifically reprimanded for approving inadequate risk assessments and for failing to conduct regular internal audits to evaluate AML/CFT controls.
In response to MAS’ action, SAFS has initiated remedial measures to address the identified deficiencies and enhance its AML/CFT framework.
Ms Loo Siew Yee, assistant managing director at MAS, noted the importance of robust AML/CFT measures for financial institutions, particularly those providing wealth management services.
She said:
“The boards and senior management of FIs are expected to put in place adequate AML/CFT controls, actively oversee the implementation of the controls, and ensure that compliance and internal audit functions are working effectively and keeping pace with the FI’s business growth.” /TISG
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