Money connection between Singapore and the Myanmar's military junta Options

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.burma/browse_thread/thread/cdd35c400394ca44/3510f40d3a4f0310?lnk=raot&pli=1

Singapore banks are used for illicit money laundering


Quote:


The US told Singapore and its banks last year to sever financial links with
Myanmar's military junta.


Singapore's central bank said confidentiality laws were no shield for
criminal activities and that banks could disclose customer information to
assist such investigations.


http://www.plushasia.com/article/1220


Singapore is being depicted as a haven for the super-rich by a recent
feature of news agency Reuters.


"The sun-drenched Asian city-state, with the highest density of millionaires
in the world, is seeing wealth management prosper as the US and Europe
grapple with the worst slump in a generation," said the report picked by
Forbes, China Daily and a local weblog.



The feature compared Singapore's strict bank secrecy rules to those of
Switzerland which are under assault, following the charging of UBS's wealth
management chief for helping Americans hide money.


Assets under the management of Singapore financial institutions soared by a
third last year to more than US$800 billion (about S$1.17 trillion).


The amount is small compared to Switzerland. Singapore had US$500 billion in
offshore assets under management last year, according to the Boston
Consulting Group, compared to four times as much in Switzerland.


Banks such as Credit Suisse and Macquarie Group are hiring wealth management
staff in Singapore, despite a local recession. Bank of China is one of the
latest to plan a wealth management arm here.


Singapore has a hard line on bank secrecy. It has not agreed to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) standards of
transparency and exchange of information.


Singapore, which is trying to grow financial services to wean dependence on
manufacturing, is on the International Monetary Fund's list of tax havens
and targeted by a proposed new US anti-tax-abuse law.


Another country that had similarly shunned the OECD, Liechtenstein, recently
agreed to a landmark deal with the US, paving the way for the exchange of
bank account details with Washington in cases of tax evasion. The agreement
may pressure Switzerland into similar concessions.


Such scrutiny in the West could lead to more European money flowing here.
But European cash comes with the risk that Singapore too could be targeted
in the crackdown on tax havens.


The US told Singapore and its banks last year to sever financial links with
Myanmar's military junta.


Singapore's central bank said confidentiality laws were no shield for
criminal activities and that banks could disclose customer information to
assist such investigations.