Singapore has asked the world’s biggest banks to avoid discussing the origins of the significant sums of money flowing into the city over the past year, as wealthy Chinese funnel billions into the Asian financial hub.
The tacit directive from the Monetary Authority of Singapore was given during a February 20 meeting of an industry group made up of bankers and regulators, according to multiple people who attended.
The flow of money from China into Singapore has become a politically sensitive issue domestically, and the MAS wants banks to keep public discussion of the phenomenon to a minimum, said three people with knowledge of the talks. China was not mentioned by name, but it was clear regulators were referring to the country, they added.
The influx of mainland Chinese money and people into Singapore comes as China’s president Xi Jinping has launched a regulatory assault on business and an anti-corruption crackdown. The city-state has plotted a careful path as a neutral financial center at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, becoming a destination for the assets of many of China’s wealthiest families.
“It was obvious that they [the MAS] were referring to China with all the press about family offices setting up here and mainlanders moving over, though they didn’t single out a particular country,” said one banker from an international bank.
Members of the Private Banking Industry Group include HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan and Citigroup, as well as local banks DBS and Bank of Singapore. It is jointly chaired by representatives of the MAS and UBS and meets three times a year.
The MAS, Singapore’s central bank, said when banks reported the sources of their capital inflows, they should not single out any particular markets, according to another senior banker briefed on the discussion.
This banker summarized the MAS’s message as being that private banks should “just quietly do your job” because “you don’t want to antagonize”.
The MAS said the meeting in February noted that growth in fund flows into Singapore “has been driven by high net worth individuals from different regions”.
One banker said it was not the first time the MAS has used the forum to address large capital inflows from a particular market. In the past, booming Indonesian wealth — and the local scrutiny it attracted — concerned regulators.
“They desperately want to be the regional hub of private banking, and the situation has kind of granted them that wish,” said the banker. “[The Chinese flows] are probably overrunning their best expectations of what was going to happen.”
Lawyers and industry groups estimate there were 1,500 family offices in Singapore by the end of last year, with a large chunk of them from China. The MAS said there were 700 family offices at the end of 2021, up from a handful in 2018.
https://motivalena.com/singapore-asks-banks-to-keep-quiet-on-wealth-inflows-during-china-boom
新加坡是安全的资产避风港吗？美国立法威胁没收中国富豪财产，中国富豪逃离北美回到亚洲，聪明人选香港，傻子选新加坡 ，为什么说香港才是全世界最安全的资金避风港？
MAS has not asked banks to 'keep quiet' about origins of wealth inflows into Singapore: Private banking group
SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has not instructed banks to "keep quiet" about the origins of wealth inflows into Singapore, the Private Banking Industry Group (PBIG) said on Friday (Apr 14).
The industry group's statement was issued following a Financial Times article that said MAS had issued a "tacit directive" to banks, instructing them to avoid discussing the sources of wealth inflows.
The article published on Friday claimed that the directive was made during a meeting of an industry group comprising bankers and regulators on Feb 20.
Although China was not mentioned by name during the meeting, the report cited three people with knowledge of the talks as saying that "it was clear regulators were referring to the country".
PBIG refuted these claims and said that the central bank has not issued any directive to banks, "tacit or otherwise".
At the Feb 20 meeting, the PBIG noted that "while public commentary tended to focus on fund flows from China into Singapore, the sources of overall inflows into Singapore in fact remain diversified".
The increased fund flows into Singapore were from high net-worth individuals from different markets, said the group.
"The meeting agreed that, in the face of increased fund flows into Singapore, it was important to maintain robust risk management controls to safeguard against money laundering and terrorism financing risks," added PBIG.
The group said that the meeting also discussed how to facilitate the deployment of wealth to purposeful causes, given the growing interest from family offices in philanthropy and other activities that will benefit Singapore and the region.
The PBIG is currently co-chaired by MAS and UBS, having been re-constituted from the Private Banking Advisory Group in 2011.
The group holds thrice-yearly meetings to discuss matters concerning the trust, reputation and growth of Singapore’s private banking industry.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mas-banks-origins-wealth-inflows-china-financial-times-report-3418021
是否国将不国吗?
被人家吞了还不知道呢!
Even without disclosure on the banks' part, we can still pretty much figure out the source of significant fund inflows ;)
Guess everyone is dirty.
Another saga is brewing all right......
What's with the secrecy if there's nothing to hide? 🤔
Shut up 就 shut up , 没有办法的 :(
Clean and uncorrupt my ass!
Guess it's on the QT, and very hush-hush
😲😲😲
Lawrence Wong must come clean!!!!!