The transfer on behalf of Indonesian private bank clients was flagged up as potentially suspect by staff at StanChart, according to newswire Bloomberg.
The private bank has carried out its own internal investigation and self-reported the issue to regulators.
Indonesian authorities previously pledged “hell” for those hiding money from tax collectors after an amnesty ended in March.
A higher level of scrutiny
The clients may have required a higher level of scrutiny because of their links to the military and had assets worth tens of millions of dollars, but their annual incomes were only in the tens of thousands.
The timing of the transfer in the second half of 2015 also pre-dated the introduction of Common Reporting Standards (CRS) in Guernsey designed to boost transparency.
Fifty-eight countries and jurisdictions, including Guernsey, formally committed to exchanging information in 2017, in respect of accounts open at the end of 2015, and for new accounts from 2016.
StanChart closed its operations in Guernsey last year. The investigation into the transfer by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Guernsey’s Financial Services Commission was first reported by Bloomberg.
StanChart declined to comment.
