Monetary Authority Of Singapore Launches Information Sharing Platform To Tackle Financial Discrepancies

By: Asia Business Outlook Team | Tuesday, 09 May 2023

After parliament passed the Financial Services and Markets (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday (May 9), a digital platform for Singapore's financial institutions to share information on suspicious customers or transactions will be established.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and six major commercial banks - DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, and HSBC - will collaborate to create the new platform.

These banks will be granted access to the Collaborative Sharing of Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing Information and Cases (COSMIC) platform.

It will be implemented in stages beginning in the second half of 2024.

COSMIC will initially focus on three key financial crime risks in commercial banking: the use of shell companies for illicit purposes, the misuse of trade finance for illicit purposes, and financing that aids the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

During this two-year pilot phase, information sharing will be entirely voluntary.

This will allow the platform to achieve operational stability while MAS works with financial institutions to calibrate features and address operational issues, according to Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan, who introduced the Bill for a second reading.