The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched a centralised digital platform that lets financial institutions share customer information in order to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Cosmic platform was built by MAS with the six major banks that will be its first users - DBS, OCBC, UOB, Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered.
Participants can only share customer information with each other if the customer profile or behaviour display "objectively defined" red flags.
Information sharing is focused on three key financial crime risks: misuse of legal persons; misuse of trade finance for illicit purposes; and proliferation financing.
Loo Siew Yee, assistant managing director, MAS, says: “This will strengthen Singapore’s capabilities to uphold our reputation as a well-regulated and trusted financial centre.”