News Centre

Reply To Singapore Parliamentary Question On The Recent Cases Of Trade Financing Fraud

Date 05/10/2020

Question:

To ask the Prime Minister in light of the recent cases of trade financing fraud involving billions of dollars leading to steps taken by banks to de-risk from this area, what steps will be taken to (i) ensure that there will be a sufficient number of banks providing such facilities on reasonable terms to traders (ii) reduce the fraud risks involved in such transactions on banks and other stakeholders and (iii) restore Singapore's reputation as a premier global trade financing hub.

Answer by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS:

1.      The fraud cases in the commodities trading sector have been attributed to weak disclosure practices and internal controls among a minority of trading companies. However, we do not take this lightly. To prevent such fraudulent activities and restore confidence, there needs to be a strengthening of standards and practices of transparency and governance in the commodities trading sector, more robust credit risk assessment, as well as a move away from paper-based processes as they are more susceptible to risk of fraud. These are the follow-up actions that banks, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and other government agencies are undertaking. 

Genesis, The Low-Code Application Platform For Financial Markets, Receives Strategic Investment From Citi

Date 05/10/2020

Genesis Global Technology Limited (hereafter Genesis) the global financial markets software firm, has received a strategic investment from Citi via its Markets FinTech Investments and SPRINT groups to leverage Genesis’ “Low-Code Application Platform” (LCAP) to drive its key innovation priorities. Genesis’ LCAP, enables financial firms to accelerate the delivery of technology roadmaps with a clear focus on identifying and delivering digitization opportunities across business lines. These initiatives ultimately increase business workflow efficiencies and reduce costs not only within a firm, but also drive innovation for the benefit of the industry as a whole. The amount and terms of the investment are undisclosed. 

HKFE Obtains U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Certification For MSCI Taiwan 25/50 (USD) Index Futures Contracts And MSCI Taiwan 25/50 Net Total Return (USD) Index Futures Contracts

Date 05/10/2020

Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited (“HKFE”) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has certified the following 2 broad-based equity index contracts to be offered and sold to persons in the United States (“U.S.”). U.S. investors can trade the contracts within the U.S.

Japan Exchange Group: Establishment Of An Investigation Committee In Relation To The System Failure

Date 05/10/2020

JPX would like to deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to many investors and other market users due to the failure in the arrowhead cash equity trading system on October 1, 2020.

EGX Holiday For The Occasion Of The 6th Of October Armed Force Day

Date 05/10/2020

In light of the Egyptian Prime Minister decree, it was decided that Thursday 8 October a holiday on the occasion of the October Victory anniversary celebrations. Trading will be resumed on Sunday 11 October.

Broadridge And PPI AG Collaborate To Launch Payments-As-A-Service For The European Market - New Generation Of Modern Payments Processing Platforms And Services Combines The Payment Expertise Of PPI AG With Broadridge’s SaaS Competence And Operational Excellence - European Banks To Achieve A More Powerful Payments Operation With New Solution

Date 05/10/2020

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader, has announced a collaboration with PPI AG, the Hamburg, Germany-based payments consultancy and supplier, to launch a joint payments initiative for banks and financial institutions in Europe. Many banks are currently facing major challenges in payments processing, driven by recent and ongoing market changes, such as the implementation of PSD2, SEPA ISO migration, TARGET2 and SWIFT ISO20022 migration, while also responding to national payments infrastructure changes and the emergence of new protocols, such as EBICS. There is also increasing market demand for Request to Pay and SEPA IP via TIPS, which are on the horizon although not yet mandatory. 

Oslo Børs: Mintra Admitted To Trading

Date 05/10/2020

The software company Mintra has today been admitted to trading on Merkur Market (ticker code: MNTR-ME).   

Tokyo Stock Exchange: The Cause And Measure Of Arrowhead System Failure

Date 05/10/2020

TSE would like to express our sincerest apologies to investors and the people related to the stock market for any inconvenience caused by the failure of the equity trading system, arrowhead, on October 1, 2020.

Reply To Singapore Parliamentary Question On Green Financing Amongst SMEs

Date 05/10/2020

Question:

To ask the Prime Minister (a) whether the Government tracks the take-up rate of green financing loans and products for SMEs; and (b) what are the plans to make green financing more accessible to SMEs.

Answer by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS:

1.      Green and sustainable financing flows are growing strongly in Singapore. From 2019 till the first half of this year, approximately SGD 4.8 billion of green and sustainability bonds were issued in Singapore. Singapore corporates also borrowed SGD 10.2 billion through green and sustainability-linked loans [1] in the same period. While green and sustainable financing has nearly tripled from 2018 volumes [2] , we are still at an early stage of this journey, as is the case internationally. The green share of total loan and bond transactions [3] in Singapore remains modest at less than 5%, reflecting the significant opportunity for growth.  

Reply To Parliamentary Questions On Local Singapore Banks Involvement In The Recent Document Leaks From The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Date 05/10/2020

Q 163. To ask the Prime Minister in view of the recent assertions by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that a number of banks in Singapore had handled large sums of suspicious transactions (a) how will MAS address the assertions with the banks; and (b) what have been the efforts to enhance our work against suspicious transactions and money laundering.

Answer by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS:

1.      Mr Speaker Sir, the members’ questions arose from the leaked reports of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. 

2.      Let me explain what these leaked reports are about. Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) are filed by financial institutions if they have reason to suspect that a financial transaction could be related to a crime. The reasons for suspicion may be due to an adverse media story on the customer, or the customer not providing a good explanation for an unusually large transaction. FinCEN receives a large number of STRs on an ongoing basis – 2.75 million in 2019.