The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed a composition penalty of S$1 million ($750,000) on Bank J. Safra Sarasin Ltd, Singapore Branch (BJS) for AML/CFT failures. The penalty amount was decided after taking into account the Bank’s efforts to address the identified deficiencies.
During 2014-18, BJS violated MAS’ critical AML/CFT regulations when onboarding new customers and monitoring business relations with existing customers. As a result, BJS was at a greater risk of exploitation by financial criminals for illegal activities. BJS failed to sufficiently establish the source of funds of high-risk customers and beneficial owners. It often did not verify customer representations by seeking true identification information. BJS also did not flag or adequately monitor suspicious account activities such as unusually large customer transactions without any clear economic reason.
In addition to the compensation penalty, BJS will also have to seek audits of its remediation measures from an independent party. It must also submit the reports from such audits to the MAS.
Source: Monetary Authority of Singapore