After a two-week-long investigation, the Ministry of Finance yesterday punished Citibank N.A. (花旗銀行) for negligent internal management, which led to a leak of bank clients' personal information through online credit-card-application services.
"From today on, Citibank will be prohibited from issuing new credit cards for a month," Huang Tien-mu (
According to Huang, the bank had been ordered to shut down its online credit-card-application services immediately as well as online customer-inquiry services, after complaints were made on Nov. 11 that personal information of online credit-card applicants might have been leaked.
The bureau yesterday ruled that Citibank's online-service system was seriously flawed, while the bank was tardy in responding to consumers' complaints.
Both Citibank's online services will remain shut for a period of three months until Feb. 11, when improvements have been made, the official said.
To ensure that consumers' rights and interests are not harmed, the bureau may prolong the suspension of services if it is not satisfied with the bank's improvements in its online services.
According to Huang, Citibank plans to invite computer experts from foreign countries, as a third independent party, to look into and debug its online-service system by the end of this month, in order to facilitate a safer electronic banking network.
In response, Citibank released a written statement saying that it fully respects the financial authorities' decision.
"The bank will thoroughly review its online-service computerization processes to renew our commitment to excellence in our customer service," the bank said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained