Singapore said on July 21 that a wide-ranging money-laundering investigation into fund flows connected with Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB has found serious lapses at three major banks that in some cases included “undue delay in detecting and reporting suspicious transactions”.

The announcement from the central bank, police and attorney-general's chambers came a day after the US Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit seeking to seize more than $1 billion in assets that the US filing said were the result of misappropriations from 1MDB.