Risky business? The indicators of shell company risk

Moody’s Talks: KYC Decoded

There are plenty of shell companies formed for legitimate reasons. However, as recently uncovered in a major case in Singapore where 3 billion SGD of assets were frozen, shell companies can also be used for more nefarious purposes. This risk is not always easy to spot, especially when relying on manual, time-invasive processes.

In this episode KYC Decoded, host Alex Pillow welcomes Moody’s Analytics Product Manager, Kate Weymouth, and Head of the Financial Crime Practice Group for APAC and the Middle East, Choon Hong Chua.

Their dynamic and educational conversation around shell companies and their risks includes:

• Legitimate reasons for shell companies vs. illegitimate reasons
• The seven primary indicators of shell company risk
• A deeper look into the recent Singapore shell company scam
• How Moody’s Shell Company Indicator automates traditionally manual and time consuming processes with powerful data

For additional resources mentioned in this conversation, be sure to check out:

• FATF paper ‘Best Practices on Beneficial Ownership for Legal Persons’
• FATF paper, ‘Concealment of Beneficial Ownership’
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), ‘Effective Practices to Detect and Mitigate the Risk from Misuse of Legal Persons’
• ‘Risky business? The seven indicators of shell company risk’ data visualization
• Seven indicators of shell company risk blog

If you would like to know more about how Shell Company Indicator can better identify shell company risk in your organization, please visit our website and feel free to get in touch. We would love to hear from you.