Our coverage is comprehensive – banks, merchant banks, finance companies, insurance companies, capital market services licensees, licensed trust companies, financial advisers, insurance brokers, exempt fund managers, moneychangers, and remittance houses. Financial intermediaries are held to rigorous client due diligence requirements. They are required to verify the bona fides of their customers and assess their risk profiles. Where particular customers, business relationships, or transactions present a higher risk of money laundering or terrorism financing, enhanced customer due diligence is required. Singapore’s AML/CFT regime was evaluated three years ago by the Financial Action Task Force or FATF, the global standard setter for AML/CFT. FATF assessed that Singapore operates a strict and rigorous AML/CFT regime, centred on a comprehensive and sound legal, institutional, policy, and supervisory framework. Can we do more? Let me cite three areas. First, MAS is considering a tougher penalty regime for violations of AML/CFT. In a recent announcement, the Attorney General has stated that Singapore will seek tougher penalties for white-collar criminals. MAS is in full alignment with this. We will ensure that financial crime  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  does not pay in Singapore and that those who jeopardise Singapore’s hard-earned reputation as a financial centre of integrity face severe consequences. Second, Singapore intends to make criminal the laundering of proceeds from tax offences. This is a pre-emptive move. In February next year, FATF is expected to take a decision on this matter.

In wealth management, competency standards have been established for the full range of job families – from relationship management to product development to trusts and estate planning. More than 1,500 wealth management professionals have been trained to-date. A key partner is the Wealth Management Institute, set up by GIC and Temasek in 2003, to expand and develop the pool of talent and expertise for the wealth management industry in  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Singapore. More than half of the wealth management professionals trained under the FICS framework came through WMI’s programmes. A more recent initiative to raise competency levels for the private banking industry is the introduction of the Client Advisor Competency Standards, or CACS. This industry-led initiative provides an independent mode of assessing the private banking professional’s competency before he is allowed to provide financial advice to clients. I am pleased that WMI has given strong support for CACS. The Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), which administers the CACS, tells me that there is already steady interest by private banks and individuals. The CACS, despite not being a regulated examination, is now being seen as a requirement for those interested in getting into the wealth management industry. This is a good sign. As Chairman of the Institute of Banking and Finance, let me set a target. In three years’ time, let us aim for all new entrants in the wealth management industry to have gone through either the industry-endorsed CACS or some formal certification programme under FICS.