Singapore Monetary Authority fines 42 financial institutions over 12 mln USD

Singapore, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) fined 42 financial institutions a total of 16.8 million Singapore dollars (about 12.4 million U.S. dollars) in a time span of 1.5 years, according to an enforcement report released by the central bank Wednesday.

The fines were meted out for market abuse, financial services misconduct and money laundering-related breaches for the period between July 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2018, according to the report which is the first of its kind since the initiation of the MAS' enforcement department in August 2016.

It also imposed civil penalties of 698,000 Singapore dollars (about 517,000 U.S. dollars) in two insider trading cases and one unauthorized trading case.

An investor was sentenced to 16 weeks' imprisonment for false trading in January 2018, the report showed.

Besides financial sanctions and criminal convictions, the report also said that 19 prohibition orders were issued to unfit finance professionals, barring them from re-entering the sector.

Thirty-seven reprimands were issued to five individuals and 27 financial institutions, and 223 warnings were also given to 32 individuals, 162 financial institutions, eight digital token exchanges and one Initial Coin Offering issuer.