The government of Singapore has passed a bill to establish the "Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF (money laundering/terrorism financing) Information & Cases" system, or COSMIC — a digital platform for financial institutions to share information on customers displaying potential financial crime concerns. COSMIC will be owned and operated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The COSMIC platform will initially focus on three risk areas: misuse of legal entities for money laundering, trade-based money laundering utilizing fraudulent trade documents, and proliferation financing and evasion of international sanctions. Overall it aims to improve detection and prevention of criminal activities in the financial sector.
MAS stressed that it will ensure the information is exchanged and stored securely. The platform will also have robust controls and strict user access limitations, subject to periodic audits to ensure their efficacy.
In the first phase of the COSMIC implementation, it will be available to the six major Singapore banks – DBS, OCBC, UOB, SCB, Citibank, and HSBC. This allows the platform to achieve operational stability and enables MAS to closely engage participant financial institutions to calibrate its features and address operational concerns.
In our upcoming 2023 Compendium, we will discuss the importance of these sorts of public-private partnerships for bringing new tools to bear in the management of non-financial risks. Sign up for Starling Insights to receive a copy of the report when it is released in the coming weeks.
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