PwC's Managing upstream risk: Regulatory reform review - An asian perspective December 2013 | Page 5

having adopted the approach of fixing their own
onshore rates to minimise manipulation, taking
more accountability and responsibility for their
economies. The Monetary Authority Singapore
(MAS) has consulted on the framework for
financial benchmarks and undertaken a year-long
review of SIBOR. 20 banks and 133 traders were
found to have deficiencies in the governance, risk
management, internal controls and surveillance
systems for their involvement in rigging
benchmark submissions. Relevant amendments to
the law are expected this year.

traditional ways of doing business. Identifying
client accounts that pose high tax crime risk as part
of the overall AML regime has also been the flavour
this year. In Singapore, fraudulent and wilful tax
evasion has been added as AML predicate offences
along with few hundred other predicate offences.
In Hong Kong the banking regulator has come out
to explicitly identify tax evasion and AML as an
area of focus. The Basel Committee on Banking
Supervision (BCBS) have issued a consultation
paper in June 2013 to propose guidelines for
sound risk management practices for AML. BCBS
in a nutshell describes how banks should include
AML / counter terrorist financing risks within
their overall risk management framework. In
India, increased regulatory focus on AML has also
been seen. Examples of operational implication
of regulatory pressure on the industry in general
has been seen in the form of fines, nee