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.

So who should be responsible for the macroprudential-policy tools? In Sweden, as in many other countries, there has long been a lack of a clear mandate and a clear division of labour and responsibility for this type of supervision. Initiatives have therefore been taken in several parts of the world recently to fundamentally reorganise financial supervision. In the United Kingdom, for example, the main responsibility for macroprudential policy has been given to the Bank of England. In Sweden, both Finansinspektionen and the Riksbank have tasks relating to the stability of the financial system. Both authorities also have a role to play in the prevention of financial crises. Finansinspektionen has the task of exercising supervision over financial companies, in particular those that are of the greatest significance to the stability of the system, and of working for orderly financial markets by supervising securities trading on stock exchanges and other marketplaces. The Riksbank has the task of promoting a safe and efficient payment system, which in practice means that the Riksbank has a broad responsibility for financial stability. The Riksbank oversees the development of the financial system as a whole, with a focus on institutions, markets and infrastructure of importance to financial stability, and presents its views on risks in, and the efficiency of, the financial system. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Finansinspektionen and the Riksbank thus have partly overlapping tasks, but have different ways and means of performing these tasks and base their analyses and assessments on slightly different perspectives.