Southeast Asia has become an increasingly attractive focus for cybercriminals and organised crime syndicates. This is primarily due to the large population base in Southeast Asia, with more than 516 million digital users in 2024.

MALAYSIAN Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said during the Cyber Defence and Security Exhibition and Conference in 2025 that cybercrime in 2024 had cost Malaysia RM1.5 billion in losses, with more than 35,000 victims.

There are governmental initiatives such as Malaysia’s MyCyber Hero programme, which seeks to cultivate digital literacy by tackling cyber risks including scams, false information and online exploitation, empowering communities to navigate the digital landscape safely and confidently.

Southeast Asian nations signed the Asean Treaty on Extradition in November 2025. This legal treaty helps to bolster efficient legal cooperation on extradition within the region, combatting transnational crimes such as fraud, money laundering and online scams. This would make it difficult for criminals to escape to another Asean nation.

At the 15th China-Asean Prosecutors-General Conference in September 2025, both China and Asean reaffirmed to strengthen collaboration and harness digital tools to address increasingly sophisticated financial crimes and also to facilitate the repatriation of criminal proceeds.

There is a common recognition among all states of the threat posed by the cross-border flow of illicit funds, corruption and money laundering.

Hong Kong chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu mentioned that rapid technological developments, such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, have resulted in complex challenges for enforcement authorities and prosecutors, especially because of their links to corruption and money laundering.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor-general of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate reaffirmed China’s dedication to deepening cooperation with its Asean counterparts to tackle cross-border financial crimes.

According to Transparency International 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, eight Asean member states were ranked within the higher-risk tier for corruption exposure.

Southeast Asia has become an increasingly attractive focus for cybercriminals and organised crime syndicates. This is primarily due to the large population base in Southeast Asia, with more than 516 million digital users in 2024.

Hence, it is important for firms to rigorously examine their supply chains through customer due diligence, risk assessments and monitoring mechanisms. This helps to identify financial risks, avoid compliance failures and mitigate financial crimes, such as corruption and fraud.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, there are highly sophisticated schemes increasingly employed by global crime syndicates to defraud unsuspecting victims of substantial amounts of money.

Bank-related phishing schemes, as well as e-commerce and investment scams, are rising at a worrying pace.

It is important to track the illicit financial flows that sustain criminal networks. The Malaysian police had located, frozen and confiscated hundreds of thousands of euros held in Malaysian bank accounts linked to shell companies allegedly utilised to launder proceeds from a scam originating in Finland.

The laundered funds were routed through several jurisdictions such as the Netherlands, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom, before entering Malaysia.

The Asean Senior Officials’ Meeting on Transnational Crime Working Group on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) was authorised during the 19th Asean Ministerial Meeting on transnational crime in September 2025.

This working group forms part of a decade-long action plan aimed at addressing financial crimes, particularly money laundering.

In July 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) took enforcement action against nine financial institutions, fining them a combined S$27.45 million (RM84.45 million) for serious deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing safeguards.

This was in response to the record US$3 billion (RM11.70 billion) money laundering case in August 2023. It was assessed that there was insufficient verification of clients’ sources of wealth, flawed customer risk profiling, ineffective transaction monitoring and lack of follow-up actions after submitting suspicious transaction reports.

MAS deputy managing director Ho Hern Shin reiterates the importance of maintaining vigilance. It is vital to align with MAS standards and industrial best practices, ensure that controls are robust and raise concerns when necessary.

MAS also levied S$960,000 in composition fines against five payment institutions in June 2025 for violating key AML and CFT (countering financing of terrorism) requirements. The violations raised significant compliance issues, prompting firm regulatory intervention from MAS.

Singapore’s National Anti-Money Laundering Strategy 2024 adopts a collaborative and risk-based framework with an emphasis on three key pillars: detection, enforcement and prevention. It aims to prevent illicit funds from infiltrating Singapore’s financial system. It is pivotal for stakeholders to work together in Singapore’s National AML Strategy. Banks should cooperate with Singapore’s police to freeze bank accounts and funds.

The AML/CFT industry partnership established a data analytics workgroup to allow banks to exchange views and best practices on the use and deployment of data analytics for AML/CFT objectives. There has been a stark increase in utilisation of data analytics in financial crime prevention.

MAS Notice 626 Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism – compulsory AML/CFT requirements for banks operating in Singapore – is aimed at minimising money laundering, terrorism financing and relevant risks.

Banks have to implement a risk-based framework to identify and evaluate their risk exposures and apply appropriate controls and monitoring mechanisms.

CDD (customer due diligence) has to be performed when the bank enters into a new business relationship with a customer or when there is a wire transfer exceeding S$1,500 for a customer who does not maintain a business relationship with the bank.

Financial transactions of customers have to be consistent with their businesses, risk profile and source of funds. This includes enhanced due diligence for higher-risk clients, such as politically exposed persons.

In September 2025, the Bank of Vietnam promulgated Circular 27, establishing an updated AML framework that mandates reporting any domestic transfer of VND 500 million (RM74,700) or overseas transfers of US$1,000 or more to the state bank’s AML department.

This will help enhance transparency by tightening supervision of high-value domestic transactions, fulfilling compliance requirements and enhancing the tracking of financial movements.

Financial institutions in Asia are under increasing regulatory stress to enhance their know-your-customer (KYC) frameworks as authorities intensify efforts to combat financial crimes, such as money laundering.

KYC procedures require financial institutions to gather, verify and assess extensive data, including customer identification records and sanctions screenings.

The growth of real-time payments has uncovered the limitations of conventional, manual verification systems.

To meet real-time requirements ,such as the verification of payee, financial institutions must modernise legacy infrastructure by leveraging automated monitoring tools, driven by AI.

This enables real-time data to be swiftly analysed, documents to be authenticated and evaluated for risk exposure. These live KYC checks support ongoing monitoring and adaptive risk profiling.

Legacy sanctions verification methods relied on reviewing transactions individually but with the large volume of live payments flowing expeditiously, transaction-based checks are unrealistic. Therefore, financial institutions are shifting towards customer-centric screening models that utilises updated sanctions databases to ensure timely compliance.

For instance, SWIFT’s transaction screening system helps to screen payment messages against updated sanctions list such as the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals List, United Nations Security Council Consolidated List, European Union Consolidated Sanctions List, MAS List of Designated Individuals and Entities.

As sanctioned individuals and entities get flagged in transactions, automated sanctions monitoring and proactive fraud surveillance help to mitigate cyber threats, fraud and money laundering.

Financial crime in Southeast Asia has transformed into a region-wide issue that transcends national borders. Southeast Asian nations are combatting financial crime through preventive education, legal cooperation, transnational collaboration, stronger AML frameworks and tighter regulatory enforcement.

Nevertheless, the advent of sophisticated networks and digital finance such as cryptocurrency and blockchain continue to test regulatory systems, highlighting the need for greater inter-governmental collaboration and more robust AML/CFT frameworks.

Ong Bo Yang is a former senior associate working in a foreign bank, involved in SWIFT funds transfer, sanctions and AML screening and loan administration. He has written for more than 10 Southeast Asian newspapers on topics such as digitalisation, economy, foreign relations and sustainability.

Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

 The Sun Malaysia