MAS fined UOB S$900K and Credit Suisse S$700K over 1MDB-linked AML lapses

On May 30, 2017, the Monetary Authority of Singapore imposed S$1.6 million in penalties — S$900,000 on United Overseas Bank and S$700,000 on Credit Suisse — after inspections revealed anti-money-laundering breaches, including weak customer due diligence and inadequate scrutiny of transactions, in flows connected to Malaysia's 1MDB scandal. MAS found no pervasive control weaknesses but ordered both banks to appoint independent parties to confirm rectification and to discipline errant staff.

The penalties landed alongside lifetime prohibition orders against former Falcon manager Jens Fred Sturzenegger and former BSI banker Yak Yew Chee, and a 15-year order for ex-BSI employee Seah Mei Ying. Yak and Seah were convicted of failing to report suspicious transactions and forging reference letters at BSI for Low Taek Jho, the alleged 1MDB mastermind. MAS also moved to bar three more over the flawed PetroSaudi Oil Services valuation: Maybank Kim Eng's Kelvin Ang was convicted of bribing NRA Capital analyst Lee Chee Waiy S$3,000, and NRA CEO Kevin Scully failed to ensure due care.

The review was MAS's most extensive ever, part of an action that by then totalled S$29.1 million in penalties on eight banks — BSI, Falcon, DBS, UBS, Standard Chartered, Coutts, Credit Suisse and UOB. Standard Chartered and Coutts drew their own penalties in the same sweep the year before. UOB and Credit Suisse announced they would donate the profits from the lapse-linked transactions to charity.

S$900,000 penalty for UOB and S$700,000 for Credit Suisse, plus regulator-ordered independent confirmation of remediation and disciplinary action against errant staff

Both banks failed at the two checks 1MDB's shell-company flows were designed to trip — onboarding due diligence and ongoing transaction monitoring.

The failures were individual and systemic at once: bankers forged documents and ignored red flags while bank oversight missed it — hence MAS demanded independent verification of fixes.

UOB and Credit Suisse were the last two banks penalised in the sweep, confirming the lapses spanned local and European institutions rather than one rogue shop.

In a scandal this notorious, 'we checked the client' is the whole defence: weak due diligence and shallow transaction scrutiny made the banks passive pipes for money everyone else was chasing.

Both banks appointed independent parties to confirm their remediation to MAS and donated the relevant profits to charity. MAS's 1MDB review went on to become its benchmark enforcement exercise; UOB drew a far larger S$5.6 million penalty in 2025 in a later, separate money-laundering case — the earlier 1MDB findings did not immunise it.