For the first time in over 30 years, the Monetary Authority
of Singapore (MAS) has kicked a bank out of the country. Singapore's central
bank announced that Swiss bank BSI has been served a notice of intention to
withdraw its status as a merchant bank in Singapore.
Swiss bank BSI has been linked to a global money-laundering
scandal at Malaysia's state fund 1MDB that has embroiled Prime Minister Najib
Razak and two Singaporean executives of the bank are already facing charges in
Singapore due to the scandal. MAS also announced that it had also asked state
prosecutors to investigate six other senior executives at the bank including
its former chief executive for possible criminal offences.
The moves came after Swiss authorities named several banks
involved in their own probe in the 1MDB saga. So months after checking 40 banks
in Singapore and finding no issues about their conduct, only problems involving
certain “individuals”, MAS suddenly found problems with the bank. Problems so
big they had to kick the bank involved out of Singapore to "get rid of the
problem".
I guess it’s better late than never. Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment