Singapore Simplify the "Know Your Customer" regulations
America introduced legislation to stop money laundering and tax avoidance. It required its trading partners to implement these regulations. Singapore complied to enjoy the privilege of the free trade agreement with America. 

I observed that Singapore handled these requirements poorly.

The authority, namely Monetary Authority of Singapore, require banks, stockbrokers and other financial institutions to get customers to complete several forms that are totally irrelevant to Singapore, but are relevant to America. They include any tax residencies in certain territories that are largely unknown to Singaporeans. 

The customer is also required to complete forms to provide their identity and residence, even for placing a fixed deposit of a small amount.

A customer, who is already considered as "cleared" by bank X is treated as a totally unknown person when he wishes to place a deposit with bank Y. 

The authority could have implemented a simple system to record the people who are considered to be "cleared", so that they do not have to go through the troublesome requirements to be "cleared" again when they transact with another financial institution.

Here are some suggestions to improve productivity and get rid of the troublesome and unnecessary work:

1.  Create a database to show the people who already have a bank account in Singapore and are considered to be "cleared". They are exempted from the "know your customer" (KYC) requirements when they open an account with another financial institution. The new financial institution can check the database to get the clearance.

2. Do not impose US specific regulations on customers who are not US tax payers.

A few recent high profile cases showed that, in spite of the tiresome requirements, the system failed to stop the transfer of large sums of money that are suspected to money laundering by corrupt politicians. 

In the meantime, many ordinary people are given a hassle with ordinary simple financial transactions every day. 

The authority should focus on risks that are specific to Singapore and not on risks that are irrelevant to us. Let America handle its own problems. We have our problems to handle.

We should not be distracted to deal with useless work.

The KYC requirements have been around for several decades. It is time to review our approach.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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