MAS issues best practice paper on countering proliferation financing

29 April 2025

On 25 March 2025, the AML/CFT Industry Partnership (ACIP) Counter-Proliferation Financing Working Group, in consultation with industry across various financial and non-financial sectors, issued a best practice paper (“BPP”) on countering proliferation financing (“PF”). The BPP is intended to complement Singapore’s PF National Risk Assessment and existing guidance, and provide practical suggestions to both financial institutions and non-financial institutions in their assessment and management of PF risks. 

Objectives 

The BPP provides banks with foundational guidance to advance their understanding and management of PF risks in the Singapore context by: 

  • providing an overview and increasing industry awareness of the PF risks and typologies in Singapore; 
  • providing guidance on how a PF risk assessment can be conducted with examples of methodology frameworks, information sources, and risk indicators that can be used to facilitate the assessment; 
  • providing guidance on PF risk mitigation measures, including but not limited to risk governance structures, customer/transactional due diligence, and related controls; 
  • highlighting higher PF risk areas and best practices that banks can adopt to address these risks; 
  • highlighting the role of public-private partnerships and relevant information sharing, and its importance in combatting PF; and 
  • understanding both commonalities and differences between the banking and non-banking sectors, specifically focusing on corporate service providers, digital payment token service providers, law firms, maritime insurers, and remittance agents, which have been identified as higher-PF risk sectors in Singapore’s PF NRA.

While the BPP is intended to provide guidance for the management of PF risks to banks in Singapore, similar principles and practices set out in the BPP could also be applicable to non-banks. The BPP explains that it serves as a good starting point in providing non-banks with a common framework to support their assessment and management of PF risks. 

Reference materials 

Countering Proliferation Financing - Industry Perspectives on Best Practices is available on this webpage of the MAS website www.mas.gov.sg.