Xinhua news agency quoted a MAS pressrelease as saying it found that the risk management and control of SCBS andSCTS in relation to the transfers of trust accounts of SCBS customers fromStandard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) to SCTS from December 2015 to January 2016were loose.
MAS said the and SCTS did not adequately assess and mitigate risks, and alsofailed to file suspicious transaction reports in a timely manner for thosetransfers that occurred shortly before Guernsey's implementation of the CommonReporting Standards (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Financial AccountInformation in Tax Matters.
It said the timing of the transfersraised questions of whether the clients were attempting to avoid their CRSreporting obligations.
The press release quoted MAS Deputy Managing Director Ong Chong Tee as sayingthat the authority requires financial institutions to adequately assess moneylaundering risks when deciding whether to accept customers, and to have inplace good systems and processes to monitor customer transactions.-VNA