Finance minister warns banks to protect client data

Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) yesterday said that banks would be held responsible if they were found to have illegally leaked clients' personal information to a crime organization broken up by the police on Tuesday.

"Disciplinary action will be taken against banks if their negligence led to the information leak," Lin told a press conference yesterday.

If the information-management system in a bank were found to be at fault, the ministry would ask the bank to overhaul and improve the system, he added.

Lin, however, said that it was too early to conclude that banks were responsible for the leak of their client's information, although he admitted that "there is room for banks to improve their information-management system since complaints are often lodged."

The police are still looking into how personal information on more than 15 million people was obtained from telecommunication companies and financial institutions, which was bought and used by crime organizations in various scams.

Based on the police's preliminary investigation, the personal information included names, dates of birth and telephone numbers. More detailed information such as bank accounts, credit card numbers, income and family status were also discovered, the police said.

To combat financial scams, a Cabinet-level inter-ministerial meeting, attended by representatives from the private banking sector, yesterday finalized five preventive measures and urged banks to implement them.

According to a statement released by the Bureau of Monetary Affairs, banks will only be allowed to provide transfer services, upon request by clients, to accounts which are not previously designated by depositors, beginning from June 1.

Beginning from May 10, each transfer transaction to non-designated accounts will not exceed NT$100,000 per day, the statement said, adding that new bank account applicants will be required to present their personal identification card and extra identification with a photo such as a passport, driver's license or health-insurance card.

To prevent forged credit cards and fraudulent savings accounts, the finance ministry had previously asked banks to take digital snapshots of clients when opening new accounts. The photo policy took effect on April 1.

The inter-ministerial meeting also reviewed the policy, recommended by the Bankers Association of the ROC (銀行公會), and urged banks to keep an accurate log of the digitized photo records for fear highly confidential information could be leaked.

The meeting reached a consensus that local banks will provide necessary assistance and information to financial-crime investigators within one week after the police ask for it.

According to local media reports, affected institutions include Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託銀行), Macoto Bank (誠泰銀行), Fubon Commercial Bank (富邦銀行), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), E. Sun Bank (玉山銀行) and Taishin Bank (台新銀行).