The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) for misconduct by one of its employees and irregularities in its credit card billing system.
Citibank was fined NT$6 million (US$205,430) after its internal control measures failed to detect misconduct by a financial adviser at its branch in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), the commission said.
The adviser, who was not identified by the commission, was found to have kept documents that were signed by a client that were later used to authorize transactions without the client’s knowledge, it said.
The employee had also forged monthly statements to the client in an attempt to conceal misconduct, the commission said, adding that the adviser also had personal financial dealings with the client and had recommended products that were not part of Citibank’s offerings.
The bank found that questionable transactions between the financial planner and the client began in April 2010 and totaled more than NT$20 million, the commission said.
Citibank said that after detecting the irregularities, it voluntarily reported its findings to the commission and terminated the financial planner responsible.
Citibank was also fined NT$2.5 million after a system update glitch caused it to overcharge its credit card clients.
An estimated 300,000 clients were overcharged a total of NT$31 million, about 293,000 of whom were overcharged since June last year, while 380 had paid more than they owed since October 2012, the commission said.
The bank said that it plans to reimburse all clients affected by the billing glitch, including interest, before the end of this quarter.
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