IBF Level 1: Regulatory Compliance- The MAS Guidelines to Notice 626 on Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (the ‘Notice’): Leveraging Data for Business Advantage, Assignment, ICA, Singapore, Singapore

Core Module 1 – Regulatory Compliance

Question 1.

The MAS Guidelines to Notice 626 on Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (the ‘Notice’) outlines controls that must be implemented to mitigate the risks associated with money laundering/terrorism financing.

Question 2.

Identify one specific MAS regulatory requirement, other than that referred to in Q1 (e.g., the requirement to report suspicion, rather than the whole of MAS 626), for a firm in a regulated financial services sector (e.g., banking, capital markets, insurance) with which you are familiar.

Prepare a note for the head of compliance which:

• highlights the objective
•  identifies the business unit(s)/activity(ies) it primarily affects
• comments on the measures that need to be taken to fulfil this requirement.

Question 3.

Explain the term ‘three lines of defence’ as it relates to the management of compliance risks.

Question 4.

A review of your firm’s onboarding practices has revealed failings regarding the identifying and verifying of politically exposed persons (PEPs). The key failings are that PEPs have been onboarded, but were not identified as PEPs and were assigned a Standard Due Diligence rating. 

Your tasks are to:

1. a) outline the key regulatory requirement(s) that are not being met 
2. b) in light of your answer to a) above, draft a short paragraph for distribution to all relevant staff outlining what action(s) they need to take 
3. c) prepare a short paragraph for inclusion in the overall report to the board of directors that identifies what corrective action/additional controls will be put in place to address the issue.