Singapore To Scrap High-Value Notes To Foil Criminals; MAS Continues The Pressure

Tom Burroughes

3 July 2014

Singapore will stop issuing S$10,000 ($8,000) notes to stamp out money laundering, the city-state’s financial regulator has said, a report stated yesterday.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said that given the "risks associated with large value cash transactions and high-value notes", it will stop producing the S$10,000 unit, though those already in circulation will remain legal tender indefinitely, according to Business Times.

The report explained that high-value notes are popular with organised criminals because they make it easier for them to carry large cash sums.

The action was taken as the regulator set out its approach to tackling financial crime in a speech yesterday by one of its senior officials, and published on the MAS website. Ong Chong Tee, deputy managing director (financial supervision), pointed to United Nations estimates of the scale of laundered money, at between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of global GDP annually, or in dollar terms, between $800 billion and $2 trillion a year.

He said that among other changes afoot in Singapore is that the MAS is consulting with the financial sector to formalise how firms screen clients, tighten the level at which enhanced measures are used to govern cross-border wire-transfer, and adopt a risk-based approach for politically exposed persons.

The official also pointed out that a national risk assessment carried out by the regulator highlighted areas that needed improvement. “The NRA exercise has noted that the controls adopted by banks are generally strong, but there is scope to strengthen the control processes especially in the areas of trade finance and correspondent banking. For example, during some of our inspections, we found that some banks did not screen all the key items in trade documents, and there were also inadequate controls when processing related party client transactions. We are looking to arrange roundtable sessions to share best practices in these two areas,” he said.