Singapore published an Environmental Crimes Money Laundering (ML) National Risk Assessment (NRA), which identifies the critical threats and vulnerabilities in crimes around the environment that the country is exposed to.
It also outlines mitigation measures that government agencies, financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professionals can adopt to address risks.
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The press release highlights that environmental crimes and laundering their proceeds pose significant environmental threats and have wide-ranging impacts.
Annually, crimes like illegal wildlife trafficking and illegal logging are estimated to generate between $110 billion and $281 billion in illicit gains worldwide.
Singapore’s vulnerability to environmental crime-related money laundering arises from its role as an international financial centre and a major trading and transit hub with a highly outward-focused economy.
The environmental crimes ML NRA found that:
- Singapore is vulnerable to money laundering threats from illegal wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and waste trafficking, which are common in Southeast Asia.
- Due to their transnational nature, banks and cross-border payment service providers are most at risk of being exploited to launder proceeds from environmental crimes compared to other sectors in Singapore.
- Singapore has a robust and transparent legal and enforcement framework to detect money laundering and conduct investigations, prosecutions, asset recovery, and international cooperation related to environmental crimes.
- Given the level of exposure and the extent of controls, there is a medium-low risk of criminals using Singapore for environmental crime-related money laundering.
The statement assures that the relevant law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, policy, and supervisory agencies will continue to be vigilant about the risks identified and raise the private sector’s risk awareness.