Monetary Authority of Singapore
Question No. 694
Notice Paper No. 186 of 2004
For Oral Answer
Date: For Parliament Sitting on 16 November 2004
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mdm Ho Geok Choo, MP for West Coast GRC
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Question 694
To ask the Senior Minister arising from the recent incident of safe deposit boxes being destroyed at the DBS Bank branch in Hong Kong, what valuable lessons can be drawn to ensure that there is a due diligence process in place for our banking sector.
Note: The above Question was originally directed to the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (vide Q.*694 in Notice Paper No. 186 of 2004).
Answer
1 The Monetary Authority of Singapore places importance on our banks exercising comprehensive and effective risk management, in Singapore and in their overseas operations. This includes being risk conscious and putting in place a robust risk management framework and control processes to manage the risks.
2 The recent incident in DBS' Hong Kong operations is unfortunate. The bank's investigations into the incident have concluded that it was the result of a combination of factors; namely, human error, inadequate oversight of the project by the bank and its external service providers, and gaps in internal procedures. While it is an isolated incident, it has certainly heightened the risk consciousness of the banking industry, and reinforced the importance of banks being vigilant in operational controls.
3 DBS is tightening its procedures to ensure that incidents of this nature will not happen again.