Lim Biow Chuan on Bills to strengthen Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime
In Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 2), MP Lim Biow Chuan said he supported, in principle, the need to tighten regulations on all corporate service providers (CSPs) to strengthen Singapore’s efforts to combat money laundering. However, he said many existing registered filing agents (RFAs), which will in future be classified as CSPs, typically do not deal with huge flows of funds into companies - unlike banks, financial institutions or remittance companies. He questioned whether imposing onerous requirements on them to carry out stringent customer due diligence is “overkill”. Mr Lim also asked if clear guidelines will be issued for CSPs to assess who is considered a “fit and proper” person to be a nominee director. If the criteria is not clear and easy to comply with and foreigners have to wait “months” to start a business or open a bank account here, Singapore could risk losing its competitive edge as a business-friendly country, said Mr Lim.
In Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 2), MP Lim Biow Chuan said he supported, in principle, the need to tighten regulations on all corporate service providers (CSPs) to strengthen Singapore’s efforts to combat money laundering. However, he said many existing registered filing agents (RFAs), which will in future be classified as CSPs, typically do not deal with huge flows of funds into companies - unlike banks, financial institutions or remittance companies. He questioned whether imposing onerous requirements on them to carry out stringent customer due diligence is “overkill”. Mr Lim also asked if clear guidelines will be issued for CSPs to assess who is considered a “fit and proper” person to be a nominee director. If the criteria is not clear and easy to comply with and foreigners have to wait “months” to start a business or open a bank account here, Singapore could risk losing its competitive edge as a business-friendly country, said Mr Lim.
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