Singapore (VNA) – The Monetary Authority ofSingapore (MAS) announced on October 1 that it will launch a data andinformation-sharing platform, named Cosmic, to prevent money laundering,terrorism funding and proliferation financing.

Cosmic will allow financial institutions to securely sharein a timely manner with one another information on customers or transactions,where they cross “material risk thresholds.”

Such information sharing will help financial institutionsidentify and disrupt “illicit networks,” thus helping to safeguard Singapore’sfinancial centre, MAS said in a statement.

The Cosmic platform has been co-created by MAS and six majorcommercial banks in Singapore, namely DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered,Citibank and HSBC.

The six banks will continue to co-develop the platform withMAS, and will be the initial users when it is rolled out in 2023 alongside aregulatory framework to govern the information sharing.

MAS plans to progressively extend Cosmic's coverage to morefinancial institutions and make some aspects of sharing mandatory.

Cosmic will initially focus on three key financial crimerisks in commercial banking – abuse of shell companies, misuse of trade financefor illicit purposes, and proliferation financing. More focus areas will beadded later.

MAS will also start on October 1 a public consultationprocess on the proposed legislative framework for Cosmic, which will be set outin the Financial Services and Markets Act 2021, as well as the platform'sfeatures.

The central bank said Cosmic will have strong securityfeatures to prevent unauthorised access to information, and will be operated byMAS.

MAS will also require all Cosmic participants to implementrobust measures to safeguard against unauthorised use and disclosure of Cosmicinformation. It will supervise financial institutions for compliance with theserequirements and take action against errant ones./.