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Singapore sees fewer new Chinese family offices after money-laundering crackdown
- The influx of family offices handling money of Chinese origin has slowed in the wake of Singapore’s multibillion-dollar money-laundering scandal
- Tighter checks for new applicants are partly to blame – but the city state’s elevated property prices and higher stamp duty aren’t helping, either
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In Singapore, the growth of Chinese family offices has been slowing amid the fallout from last year’s multibillion-dollar money-laundering scandal and tighter checks on new applicants.
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More than S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) in assets have been seized so far in connection with the sprawling case, which first hit the headlines in August last year when 10 China-born suspects were arrested.
Some of those suspects had links to the city state’s around 1,400 single family offices – private wealth-management entities established to oversee and manage the financial affairs of a single affluent family or individual.
Prime Minister-in-waiting Lawrence Wong, who is also chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, confirmed the number of family offices in a reply to a parliamentary question last month.
About 10 per cent of that total are family offices handling money of Chinese origin, according to Loh Kia Meng, chief operating officer and a senior partner at Singapore law firm Dentons Rodyk.
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Going forward, Loh foresees no change in the proportion of Chinese family offices, but he said the rate of growth had indeed decelerated due to heightened requirements on assets under management in the city state.
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