Singapore sees fewer new Chinese family offices after money-laundering crackdown

Some of those suspects had links to the city state’s around 1,400 single family offices – private wealth-management entities established to oversee and manage the financial affairs of a single affluent family or individual.

About 10 per cent of that total are family offices handling money of Chinese origin, according to Loh Kia Meng, chief operating officer and a senior partner at Singapore law firm Dentons Rodyk.

Going forward, Loh foresees no change in the proportion of Chinese family offices, but he said the rate of growth had indeed decelerated due to heightened requirements on assets under management in the city state.

“I anticipate the growth rate to continue to be stable in the next two to three years,” he told This Week in Asia. “Assuming that there are no major changes to the tax incentive schemes in relation to the qualifying criteria for family offices.”

Tighter checks on family offices in the city state have coincided with Singapore’s presidency of the Financial Action Task Force, the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

But the city state isn’t turning its back on family offices, by any means. In February, the government announced it would extend some tax incentives for family offices by another five years to the end of 2029 – a move Dentons Rodyk’s Loh said “signals Singapore’s commitment to continue to attract and support fund management activity and private wealth management”.

Family offices’ investment portfolios usually include real estate – as well as bonds and equities – but property agents say there have been fewer purchases by Chinese nationals of late.

“I see some rich Chinese looking into investing in Singapore and Southeast Asian companies, but the valuation gap is restricting the