UBS, Citi Among Banks Punished in Singapore Laundering Saga

(Bloomberg) – Singapore fined $ 27.5 million ($ 21.5 million) for nine finance companies, including a few of the world’s largest banks for tours related to the largest money laundering case.

Singapore’s money authority said on Friday, Credit Suisse’nin Singapore branch of the highest amount of $ 5.8 million S $ slapped, he said. The local units of UBS Group AG and Citigroup Inc. were also raped for violating anti -money laundering rules.

This is the largest regulatory action carried out in 2016 that the Swiss Bank Bedi SA closed the local unit and punished the banks for the failures of Malaysia for the problematic 1MDB fund. The latest move underlines the attempts to repair Singapore’s reputation and to draw a line on the $ 3 billion scandal, which reveals the gaps in the city’s defenses against illegal money.

Globally, the regulators often imposed more hard fines for anti -money laundering tours to banks. Last year, Toronto-Dominion Bank reached a solution of $ 3.1 billion due to the fact that he did not catch and stop the money laundering in countless US branches. In 2022, Danske Bank A/s was fined 2 billion dollars to end the money laundering in a long -standing US investigation after a long -standing US investigation after admitting that a large part of the Estonian branch was a large part of the Estonian branch.

MAS said that the movement had completed the two -year inspection review regarding the money laundering case, which was open to the public in August 2023,. Authorities seized approximately 3 billion dollars in assets, including cash, real estate and crypto currencies. Ten people, called the Fujian gang, were accused of two former bankers for their role in fiasco in 2024.

MAS said that violations of financial institutions and anti -money laundering controls are caused by “bad or inconsistent practice .. Companies will eliminate deficiencies and closely monitor the regulatory progress.

In addition to financial penalties, MAS also issued forbidden orders for four to four years in Four to Four to Four to Four to Four to Four to Four to the Asset Manager Blue Ocean Invest. A few people from other companies received condemnation from the regulator.

United Overseas Bank Ltd and UBOB-KAY Hian, Trust Trust and Blue Ocean Invest, the third largest lending of Singapore, said that they have improved to address gaps. UBS, who took over Credit Suisse in 2023, said that he had cooperated with the authorities. Citi said that a spokesman further strengthens the customer’s recruitment and monitoring processes.

Singapore’s attractiveness as a global reserve center increased businesses in banks from DBS Group Holdings to UBS. Assets managed by finance companies in Singapore rose by 10% in 2023 compared to the previous year and rose to $ 5.41 trillion.

The scale of the case shook the rich city state and enabled the state to review the measures against dirty money. Singapore was also the focus of the fraud in the German payment company Wirecard AG.

(In the fourth paragraph, fines adds condemnation in the seventh paragraph and comments from companies.)

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