Singapore has received a strong assessment from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for its financial crime controls, even as the watchdog flagged areas to strengthen in foreign legal structures and some proliferation financing risks.
The FATF published its latest mutual evaluation report on Singapore on 6 May 2026.
The review assessed Singapore’s compliance with FATF standards and the effectiveness of its measures to counter money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.
Singapore was placed on Regular Follow-up, the monitoring process for FATF members that have performed well.
The latest assessment also marks an improvement from Singapore’s previous evaluation in 2016, even though FATF standards have since been strengthened.
The FATF highlighted Singapore’s governance structures, legal framework, risk understanding, supervision of obligated entities and law enforcement system supporting investigations and prosecutions.
FATF Report Points to Areas for Further Strengthening in Singapore
The report also identified areas for improvement. It noted that Singapore has a reasonably sound understanding of risks linked to legal persons and legal arrangements, and that law enforcement agencies can obtain beneficial ownership information in a timely manner.
Building on this, the FATF said Singapore could further strengthen risk mitigation measures for foreign legal persons and foreign legal arrangements.
The report also found that while financial institutions and virtual asset service providers generally understand their proliferation financing risks and obligations, awareness could improve in some sectors not traditionally subject to FATF requirements, such as representation offices of foreign flag States.
Singapore’s authorities said they will study the FATF’s recommendations and assess how they can be adopted in a risk-proportionate way.
They also plan to expand COSMIC, a platform launched in April 2024 that allows financial institutions to share information on customers showing red flags linked to potential financial crime.
COSMIC will be expanded to allow information sharing in significant cases and include other major banks.
The platform currently involves DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, Citibank and HSBC, and focuses on the misuse of legal persons, misuse of trade finance for illicit purposes and proliferation financing.
Singapore said it remains committed to maintaining an effective financial crime regime while staying open to legitimate businesses and investors.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by jcomp via Magnific
