Stung by the money-laundering scandal surrounding the Malaysian state fund 1MDB, Singapore has decided to tighten its controls of the financial-services industry. The monetary authorities intend to use robots in their quest to keep the banks under supervision.
Singapore's financial market has been hurt by the scandal involving 1MDB, the state fund of Malaysia. Swiss institutes such as UBS, Falcon and BSI played significant roles, according to reports.
«There is no doubt that the recent findings have made a dent in our reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre,» said Ravi Menon, managing director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at its annual news conference on Monday. «MAS is determined to fix the problem, working together with the industry.»
Tighter Controls
The central bank of Singapore will tighten its controls, conduct rigorous investigations and take swift action against errant financial institutions.
MAS will change its strategy in the fight against money laundering, potentially naming and shaming banks for larger breaches, Menon said, according to a report by «Reuters».
Robots
In the past, MAS has conducted its investigations on other offenses in private. Menon said the central bank is exploring the use of machine learning algorithms to identify manipulative trading behaviors in capital markets or to detect money-laundering transactions.
But the authority is well aware that this won't be enough and that the banks have to take responsibility for the maintenance of proper conduct across the industry.
