The government is to reshuffle the board of directors at Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) and hold bank officials liable for negligence after US authorities levied a massive fine on the bank’s New York branch for violating money-laundering rules, the Cabinet said yesterday.
At the third meeting of a task force established by the Cabinet to investigate the case, the Ministry of Finance said that Mega International’s board is to undergo a comprehensive overhaul.
The ministry is also planning to reshuffle state-run Mega Financial Holding Co’s (兆豐金控) board of directors, it said.
The ministry said it would ask Mega International to launch legal proceedings against negligent directors and seek compensation after investigations into the case have concluded.
The investigation has found significant negligence of Mega International’s oversight measures, as the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued an inspection report to Mega International in February, which detailed its failure to comply with US money-laundering laws, but Mega International did not report it to the Financial Supervisory Commission until May 18.
Mega International also failed to report the DFS’ inspection of its New York branch in March last year and US Federal Reserve Bank officials’ visit to Mega International’s headquarters in Taipei in October last year in relation to the case, the commission said.
Government representatives sitting on the boards of Mega International and Mega Financial did not report the case to the ministry until Aug. 4, the ministry said.
Mega International’s failure to report the case to the relevant authorities is “inconceivable,” and the task force has asked newly appointed Mega Financial chairman Michael Chang (張兆順) to determine responsibility and put forward improvement measures, the Cabinet said.
The Ministry of Finance last night announced that Bruce Yang (楊豊彥), the president of state-run Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), is to replace Wu Hann-ching (吳漢卿) as Mega Financial president.
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