Fubon Bank Fined For Violating Money Laundering Act

The Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦) has been fined NT$1 million (US$33,200) for failing to file reports on large cash transactions as required by the Money Laundering Control Act, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Tuesday.
The incident is the second time the FSC has fined a local bank over such violations following a NT$1.8 million fine that was imposed on Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰銀) earlier this year.

Under the Act, financial institutions are required to report to relevant authorities each cash transaction or withdrawal by their clients that exceeds NT$500,000.

A recent investigation led by the FSC found that Fubon has failed to report some 20 suspicious financial transactions carried out by its clients last year, according to Chen Yen-yi (陳妍沂), chief secretary of the FSC's Banking Bureau.

The bank did not comply with the rules and failed to report the transactions to the Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice, she said.

The regulation was drawn up to prevent cases such as the Mega Bank New York branch being fined US$180 million by the New York State Department of Financial Services in August last year for violating the state's anti-money laundering laws, after the bank failed to explain alleged violations by its Panama branch of money laundering laws and involvement in other suspicious transactions.

Source: CP