Moneychangers Association urges members to use armed escorts

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/moneychangers-association/1477822.html

The Moneychangers Association of Singapore is urging its members to engage the services of armed escorts - for example, Certis Cisco officers - when transporting large sums of money.

This comes after one moneychanger was robbed of S$600,000 two weeks ago, and another man was stabbed in broad daylight in an armed robbery at Raffles Place last Friday (Nov 14).

It is still not clear if the victim of the armed robbery was a moneychanger. But what is known is that he was carrying almost S$800,000 in cash and cheques in his bag.

The Moneychangers Association says it already advises its 150 members to use a buddy system and keep a low profile, such as by dressing down, when transporting money.

Certis Cisco told Channel NewsAsia that nine moneylenders currently engage its armed escort service, and have been doing so for the past two to three years.

A spokesman adds that since the recent incidents, it has received three queries in the past two weeks. Previously, it received an average of one query a month.

The Moneychangers Association says that getting members buy-in will be tricky, especially for smaller moneychangers as it will be an additional cost for them to hire armed escorts.