Singapore’s MAS and Financial Industry to Use New Digital Platform to Fight Money Laundering

Financial institutions in Singapore would be required to share with other market participants key information on customers and transactions to prevent money laundering and terrorism, under proposals unveiled by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Major financial institutions will use a new digital platform, named COSMIC, for “Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF Information & Cases”, on which institutions will securely share information on customers or transactions that cross material risk thresholds. The information sharing initiatives will help institutions identify and disrupt illicit networks and is part of an effort to close the gap that allows criminals to avoid detection by moving from one institution to another.

Under the proposals, which are set to come into force in the first half of 2023, some information sharing will be mandatory. The MAS will operate the platform and require all platform participants to implement robust measures to safeguard against unauthorised use and disclosure of information. The authority will supervise institutions for compliance and take action against errant institutions.

A project led by MAS, it involves six major commercial banks in Singapore, namely, DBS, OCBC, UOB, SCB, Citibank and HSBC. 

The platform will be the first centralised platform on which information is shared in a structured format that allows for seamless integration with data analytics tools. It will have strong security features to prevent unauthorised access to information, and will be operated by MAS. The platform will immediately involve the above banks but it is envisioned that it will be rolled out to more institutions and focus areas. 

“The information sharing framework is designed to target serious criminal behaviours and allow FIs to more quickly detect the bad actors to purge and deter them,” said Ms Loo Siew Yee, MAS’ Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime). 

MAS is seeking feedback on the proposed legislative framework for COSMIC, as well as the platform’s features. It invites interested parties to submit their comments on the proposals and legislative amendments, outlined in the consultation paper here by 1 November 2021.