The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced that it will introduce a digital platform and enabling regulatory framework for financial institutions (FIs) to share with one another relevant information on customers and transactions to prevent money laundering (ML), terrorism financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF).
The new digital platform, named COSMIC, for “Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF Information & Cases”, will enable FIs to securely share information on customers or transactions, where they cross material risk thresholds.
The COSMIC platform is co-created by MAS and six major commercial banks in Singapore, namely, DBS, OCBC, UOB, SCB, Citibank and HSBC. It will have strong security features to prevent unauthorised access to information, and will be operated by MAS. MAS will provide in legislation that this information sharing by FIs is permitted only for the purpose of combating ML, TF and PF.
MAS plans to launch the COSMIC platform in the first half of 2023. COSMIC will initially focus on three key financial crime risks in commercial banking, namely, abuse of shell companies, misuse of trade finance for illicit purposes, and PF. The six banks involved in COSMIC’s development, which are leading players in commercial banking, will participate and be permitted to share information in COSMIC during this initial phase. MAS plans to progressively extend COSMIC’s coverage to more FIs and focus areas and make some aspects of sharing mandatory.
Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime), said:
“COSMIC will significantly enhance our financial institutions’ ability to detect and curb suspicious activity, while minimising the impact on legitimate actors. 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. It will strengthen Singapore’s position as a trusted financial centre and place to do business, where FIs can better serve the vast majority of legitimate customers.”
