Swiss watchdog probed 22 money laundering breaches in 2016

BERN (Reuters) - Swiss financial watchdog FINMA investigated more than twice as many breaches of anti-money laundering rules in 2016 as it did a year earlier, the supervisory body said on Tuesday.

The number of investigations rose to 22 from 9 in 2015 "particularly in connection with international corruption offences", the Bern-based organisation said in a statement.

In 2016, Swiss banks were central players in the scandal surrounding Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, one of the world's biggest ongoing white-collar crime cases.

BSI Bank and Falcon Private Bank were sanctioned by FINMA for their dealings with 1MDB.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Michael Shields)