The chief executive officer of Singapore’s largest bank acknowledged exposure of about 100 million Singapore dollars (U.S. $74 million) related to the city-state’s money laundering scandal.
Piyush Gupta of DBS discussed the matter during a press briefing Monday aligning with the bank’s release of its third-quarter results. The bank disclosed overall net profit and income increases, even despite the exposure and other recent turmoil it has faced.
In August, 10 foreigners were arrested in Singapore in connection with a SGD$2.8 billion (U.S. $2 billion) money laundering scandal. Financial institutions linked to the individuals have since faced additional scrutiny, including potential investigations by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
At DBS, Gupta said the bank financed property purchases by individuals and companies linked to the money laundering probe.
The bank said it is also addressing recent regulatory scrutiny it received from the MAS related to repeated and prolonged digital banking service outages this year. The MAS last week imposed a six-month pause on DBS’s ability to acquire new business ventures as it works to restore the resilience of its systems.
“We will … dedicate ourselves to executing the comprehensive set of measures we recently announced to address the series of digital disruptions, for which we are truly sorry,” said Gupta in a statement. “We are committed to strengthening our technology resilience and ensuring customer service reliability.”
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