Eye on suspicious actions

While the report doesn’t necessarily imply the transactions were illicit, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) “will take appropriate action based on the outcome” of its review, it said in an emailed statement yesterday.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s financial regulator is “closely studying” a report that said about US$4.4bil of suspicious transactions flowed through the city’s banks.

The island state’s largest lenders – DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) – are among global firms that profited from “powerful and dangerous players” even after the US imposed penalties on the institutions, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said in an investigation published Sunday. The US$4.4bil was processed by Singapore banks including DBS, OCBC and UOB, it said.