Singapore accountants to toughen up against money laundering

Enhanced controls and procedures to be imposed.

With effect from 1 November 2014, professional accountants, including public accountants will need to abide by enhanced mandatory requirements on implementing controls and procedures for anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT).

The Singapore government said the enhanced requirements are contained in the new Ethics Pronouncement 200 - “Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism – Requirements and Guidelines for Professional Accountants in Singapore” issued by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA).

This pronouncement is also being adopted by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and will be applicable to public accountants and accounting entities registered under the Accountants Act who are regulated by ACRA.

With money laundering and terrorist financing activities becoming increasingly sophisticated, the pronouncement will further strengthen Singapore’s strong reputation as a trusted international financial and business centre.

The new pronouncement covers existing and enhanced requirements governing all professional accountants, including public accountants and professional accountants in business, and accounting entities.

Non-compliance with the requirements under the new pronouncement may result in an investigation into the public accountant’s or professional accountant’s conduct by ACRA or ISCA respectively. The new pronouncement takes a risk-based approach so that the required procedures are applied proportionately to the individual money laundering/ terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks faced by professional accountants and accounting entities.

The new pronouncement includes enhancements on: requirements for accounting entities to have the systems and controls in place to address ML/TF concerns; requirements for public accountants and accounting entities to have specific customer due diligence and records keeping measures when providing certain services; and recommendations on reporting procedures, training, compliance, hiring and audit.

The pronouncement is effective from 1 November 2014. However, certain sections will only come into force from 1 May 2015 to allow time for the accountancy sector to implement the new controls and procedures.