Everything About the Leaked FinCEN Documents (SARs) That Claimed S’pore Banks Were Involved in Suspicious Transactions

Yesterday, we got to know that certain banks in Singapore had handled “suspicious transactions”, and that was only revealed after a leaked secret document was published in US media.

Now, if you’re like me, you’d go, “Wait, why would a secret document in the US affect us here in Singapore? Are our banks bad human beings? Is my money safe? But it’s okay since I’ve no money in—”

Fret not; let Goody Feed explain this latest incident simplified for you.

What is a Suspicious Transaction?

Before anything, let’s define what a “suspicious transaction” is.

While the name connotes something insidious, it might just be a normal transaction. According to experts, it’s when there are weird transactions based on the bank account’s history: for example, if you’ve been getting depositing $3,000 a month to your bank account, and you suddenly deposit $300,000, that is considered a suspicious transaction.

Another example is when you transfer $1 million from one bank account to another.

Usually, banks and financial institutions are obliged to flag these suspicious transactions so that regulators can follow up on them if needed.

So now you know what a suspicious transaction is, you’re now tempted to leave this article because it seems like there are no wrongdoings after all, and these news stories are sensationalised to garner clicks.

But read on because it gets a tad more exciting.

Everything About the Leaked FinCEN Documents (SARs) That Claimed S’pore Banks Were Involved in Suspicious Transactions

Suffice to say, banks would’ve encountered many suspicious transactions daily. Heck, even in our company, when we made a big-ticket purchase, we’d actually receive a call from our bank to confirm that we, indeed, have made the purchase.

So if suspicious transactions are so common, why is this news?

Because now, we got to know that these transactions didn’t just happen within Singapore, but outside Singapore, too.

You see, banks in the US have to file a report of the suspicious transactions in a report called suspicious activity reports (SARs) with the US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

For example, if you run a bank and an 87YO elderly has just withdrawn his life savings of $5,000 for a facial treatment, it’ll be indicated in the report (unsure if the facial part is included or not, of course).

And one fine day, BuzzFeed News obtained a copy of the SAR, and BuzzFeed being BuzzFeed, they decided to share it with the world and it turned out that the number of suspicious transactions is larger than anyone’d have imagined.

Between 199 to 2017, the transactions totalled to more than USD$2 trillion; that’s about SGD$2.7 trillion. To put it to digits, we’re talking about SGD$2,700,000,000,000.

Most of the banks have responded, saying that they’re helping combat fraud.

Now you know why this involves Singapore: because a transaction must involve two parties, and Singapore banks are also one of the parties.

Based on the leaked documents, the three banks with the largest processed funds in Singapore are DBS Bank, CIMB Bank and Deutsche Bank.

However, almost all banks in Singapore are in the list, including other popular ones like UOB and OCBC.

In total, for almost 20 years, Singapore received about US$3 billion and sent US$1.5 billion in 1,781 suspicious transactions.

But as mentioned, these are just transactions and it could just be Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg sending lots of money to a charity to Singapore.

MAS Studying the Report

MAS has since responded to the report, saying, “Although suspicious transaction reports in and of themselves do not imply that the transactions are illicit, MAS takes such reports very seriously.

“MAS is closely studying the information in these media reports, and will take appropriate action based on the outcome of our review. Singapore’s regulatory framework to combat money laundering meets international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.”

This is akin to what the banks in the US have said lah.

So, in conclusion?

There’s really nothing to worry about. But at least you learn something here, eh? If you want to learn more things that are simplified for you, do check out our YouTube channel here!