Indonesia regulator urges Singapore banks to support tax amnesty effort

JAKARTA - Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) on Wednesday said it has called banks with Singapore affiliations to clarify news that Singapore banks are sharing data on Indonesian tax amnesty participants with the white-collar crime unit of Singapore's police.

The OJK met with officials from the Indonesian affiliates of United Overseas Bank, DBS Group, and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp on Tuesday, the regulator said in a statement.

"The OJK put great attention to the success of the tax amnesty programme and asked these banks to fully support (the amnesty) and communicate this with their parent companies in Singapore," agency official Irwan Lubis said.

Private banks in Singapore are sharing with the Commercial Affairs Department of the police the names of clients joining an Indonesian tax amnesty, three banking sources told Reuters last week.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore confirmed it advised banks in Singapore to encourage clients to use tax amnesty programmes and that banks have to file a suspicious transaction report (STR) when handling tax amnesty cases.