【Translated by HW Group】

Singapore''s financial regulator has published anti-money laundering (AML) regime amendments requiring much more detailed and extensive reporting of persons connected with trusts.

Important new measures were introduced in 2024, requiring compulsory reporting of company beneficial ownership, disclosure of nominee shareholders and regulation of corporate service

providers. The additional amendments now proposed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are intended to comply with international standards imposed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in particular FATF Recommendation 25 regarding beneficial ownership and transparency of legal arrangements such as trusts. The wording of that recommendation was tightened in February 2023. MAS considers it has to amend its definition of ''trust relevant party'' accordingly.

The current definition includes settlors, trustees, named beneficiaries and any person who has any power over the disposition of any property that is subject to the trust. These are to be extended to protectors, classes of beneficiaries and ''objects of a power''. They will also include any other persons with the power under the legal arrangement instrument or by law to: invest trust property; distribute, or approve the distribution, of trust property; or to vary or terminate the trust.

As well as meeting the new FATF standard, this will also align the AML regime with recent amendments to the Trustees Act 1967 regarding collection of the trust''s basic information.

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