SINGAPORE – Remittance companies here have been directed to suspend the use of non-bank and non-card channels when providing individuals with cross-border money transfer services to China for the next three months, Singapore’s central bank said in a Dec 18 notice.
This comes after the police said it had received more than 670 reports of remittances through such channels being frozen as of Dec 15, involving a total amount of around $13 million.
From Jan 1 to March 31, 2024, remittance companies may engage only a bank, a card network operator such as UnionPay International, or a licensed financial institution that has engaged a bank or a card network operator, to assist with such transfers, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said.