Daily Dash: Singapore Police Use Robotics To Foil More Than 1,300 Scams In Two Months

• Singapore Police Use Robotics To Foil More Than 1,300 Scams In Two Months
• RTP Network Hits Record Highs With More Than 1m Payments Daily
• Russia Issues New Standards For Payment Acceptance Operators
• Nepal Taps Alipay+ For Cross-Border Payments Connectivity
• Vietnamese Central Bank To Launch New AML Department In 2025
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority Penalises Fubon Bank For AML Failures

Singapore Police Use Robotics To Foil More Than 1,300 Scams In Two Months

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has announced that its Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) foiled more than 1,300 ongoing scams during September and October.

Working with five major banks — DBS, HSBC, OCBC, UOB and Standard Chartered — the ASC used Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to identify victims of job, investment, fake friend call and e-commerce scams.

The identification of victims enabled the police and banks to reach out to them to halt further monetary transfers, preventing potential financial losses of more than S$53m ($40m). 

“The adoption of RPA technology streamlined the sharing and processing of information, enabling the police to swiftly reach out to potential scam victims through SMSes,” said the SPF.

“The SMS alerts notified the potential scam victims to the suspicious transfers which the scammers had instructed them to perform, and advised them against effecting further transfers.”

RTP Network Hits Record Highs With More Than 1m Payments Daily

The RTP network, the United States' largest instant payment system operated by The Clearing House, has announced that it is now processing more than 1m payments per day, with record-setting single-day totals reaching 1.46m transactions worth $1.24bn on November 1.  

The company, whose network includes JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and BNY Mellon, said that in October alone, the RTP network handled a record 31.7m transactions valued at $25.4bn, marking monthly increases of 6.2 percent in volume and 9 percent in value over September. 

Compared with July, transaction volume and payment values surged 12 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively, driven by rising demand for real-time payment solutions from consumers and businesses, with 42 percent of RTP transactions occurring outside standard banking hours. 

“It is exciting to see that the RTP network is supporting real world payment needs of both consumers and businesses with almost half of payments happening after banking hours,” said Margaret Weichert, chief product officer at The Clearing House. 

“With the holiday season upon us, consumers can send money instantly to pay for gifts, holiday meals and other festivities, while small businesses can get paid in real time.”

Russia Issues New Standards For Payment Acceptance Operators

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) has published new mandatory standards for payment acceptance operators in the financial market. 

Effective November 17, 2024, the directive requires self-regulatory organisations (SROs) overseeing payment operators to establish two core standards: one for regulating payment acceptance operations; and another to safeguard the rights of financial service recipients.

This action follows other payments-related initiatives from the central bank, including draft regulation regarding the accepting of electronic payments in October. 

Nepal Taps Alipay+ For Cross-Border Payments Connectivity

Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has partnered with Ant International to launch a new cross-border payments bridge between NepalPay QR and Alipay+.

The partnership will enable travellers from ten countries and territories to use a domestic e-wallet or bank app to make payments to more than 875,000 merchants via the NepalPay QR code network.

The ten countries and territories are Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea.

The launch follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by NCHL and Ant International in May 2024.

Vietnamese Central Bank To Launch New AML Department In 2025

The Vietnamese government has confirmed that a new Department of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) will commence operations in January 2025.

The new department will operate under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), and will lead the coordination of AML and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts across ministries and state agencies.

Previously, the department was a smaller unit within the SBV’s Banking Supervision Agency, tasked with assisting the chief inspector in combating money laundering.

The SBV’s Forecasting and Statistics and Monetary and Financial Stabilisation departments will also be merged into one unit known as the Department of Forecasting, Statistics and Monetary and Financial Stabilisation.

A new Department of Banking Inspection and Supervision will also be added under the SBV’s Banking Supervision Agency; however, the Banking Supervision Agency will no longer perform AML/CFT duties.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority Penalises Fubon Bank For AML Failures

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has imposed a HK$4m enforcement penalty on Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (FBHK) for breaching the jurisdiction's anti-money laundering (AML) regulations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO).

The action follows FBHK’s self-reported lapses in transaction monitoring, which prompted the HKMA to investigate the bank's systems for compliance. 

Between April 2019 and July 2022, the bank reportedly failed to maintain adequate procedures to monitor customer relationships effectively. 

Key issues included poor management of system changes, inadequate follow-up on alert decreases and insufficient review of transaction monitoring scope. 

FBHK also neglected to scrutinise certain customer transactions and missed updating due diligence reviews after specific "trigger events".

“The AMLO requires banks to put in place effective procedures for continuous monitoring of their business relationships with customers so that potential money laundering and terrorist financing activities are detected early," said Raymond Chan, enforcement chief at the HKMA. 

"When changes are introduced to existing monitoring systems, bank management should ensure that the scope of surveillance covers all relevant transactions and any identified deficiencies are followed up promptly.”