Singapore sets response deadline for family office applications

SINGAPORE -- Singapore's financial regulator is pushing family office applicants to respond promptly to scrutiny, or risk having their efforts to obtain tax breaks rendered fruitless, as the Southeast Asian financial center tightens procedures around foreign wealth inflows in the wake of a massive money laundering bust.

According to three industry sources with knowledge of the matter, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will give a maximum of one month for applicants to reply to the regulator when it asks for additional information. In the past, no hard deadline was given. Going forward, applications are set to be disregarded if the deadline is not met.