National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism

11 OCT 2022

Dear Regulated Dealer,

National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism

Singapore formulated a National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism (“CFT”) based on the findings from the Terrorism Financing National Risk Assessment (“TF NRA”) 2020.

The National Strategy for CFT outlines the national approach to address terrorism financing (“TF”) risks, guides the development of future action plans against TF, and enhances the coordination across stakeholders, including the relevant private sector in the National Strategy for CFT.

Singapore’s Five-Point CFT Strategy

Singapore’s National CFT strategy comprises five key points, which are summarised as follows:

  1. Coordinated and Comprehensive Risk Identification. We regularly review the TF landscape, taking into account current and emerging typologies, and international standards.
  2. Strong Legal and Sanctions Frameworks. Our CFT objective ensures that terrorism is not financed from or through Singapore by detecting, deterring and preventing TF-related activities.
  3. Robust Regulatory Regime and Risk Targeted Supervisory Framework. Sector supervisors take actions to manage, mitigate and monitor the TF risks arising from their sectors’ activities.
  4. Decisive Law Enforcement Actions. We adopt a zero-tolerance stance against any TF activity and will not hesitate to take swift and effective actions.
  5. International Partnerships and Cooperation. In line with our zero-tolerance stance against TF, international cooperation is a key component of Singapore’s CFT strategy.

Click here to read the full report.

What should I do as a regulated dealer?

The TF NFA revealed that regulated dealers are also vulnerable to TF in Singapore, particularly in light of the relative new regulatory regime for the precious stones and precious metals dealer sector.

Regulated dealers are the first line of defence to disrupt and prevent funds from reaching the hands of terrorists and terrorists entities. To help regulated dealers to be more effective in guarding against TF, the Ministry of Law has provided the following resources:

  1. A non-exhaustive list of red flag indicators to identify some of the circumstances that could be suspicious and linked to TF in Annex D of Guidelines for Regulated Dealers; and
  2. A basic screening function which registered dealers can use to conduct screening against the lists of designated persons and terrorists and terrorist entities. You may access this screening function via myPal.