Singapore enhances anti-money laundering efforts with new corporate rules

The changes come with the passing of the Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill in Parliament on July 2.

The amendments require companies to provide full information on nominee arrangements to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra), Straits Times reports.

Under the new rules, Acra will publicly disclose which directors and shareholders of a company are acting as nominees. A nominee director is appointed to act according to the instructions of another person or a beneficial owner. Previously, while such individuals were required by law to disclose their nominee status to their companies, there was no requirement for this information to be shared with Acra.

Singapore’s second Minister of Finance, Indranee Rajah told Parliament that “this information will be useful to banks, corporate service providers, and other gatekeepers who may, for instance, wish to conduct additional checks on companies with many nominee directors or shareholders."

These amendments are part of Singapore’s ongoing effort to enhance its anti-money laundering regime.

The new laws require companies to now provide Acra with the particulars of nominee directors and shareholders, as well as the identities of the nominators behind these nominees. 

To ensure compliance and accuracy of registers, the maximum penalties for companies and LLPs that commit offences relating to their registers will be increased from $5,000 to $25,000.