The Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday asked all state-run financial institutions to improve regulatory compliance at their overseas branches by hiring local experts, despite higher costs.
The ministry, the largest shareholder in state-run financial institutions and responsible for the appointments of their chairpersons, made the request after a meeting with the institutions’ top executives yesterday afternoon.
Deputy Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said the ministry will mete out punishments after it received the results of a cross-ministerial probe into the failure of Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch to comply with rules against money laundering.
The New York State Department of Financial Services on Friday announced in a statement that the New York branch of Mega bank agreed to pay a US$180 million fine for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering regulations.
The branch failed to notify local regulators of more than 70 transactions in 2012 that involved Panama, a high-risk area for money laundering, the department said in the statement.
After hearing a report by Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Shiu Kuang-si (徐光曦), Su attributed the bank’s violation mainly to negligence that could have been avoided if it had a better understanding of New York’s compliance requirements.
Mega bank should have notified the ministry and the Financial Supervisory Commission of the issue as soon as the US authorities first demanded a solution in February, Su said.
“The incident shows the need for local compliance counsel. All state-run financial institutions should make use of local experts at overseas branches to avoid similar negligence,” Su said.
Such an arrangement would entail significant compliance costs.
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), the main unit of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), last year called off plans to set up a branch in the US over concerns of high compliance costs, the conglomerate’s chief financial officer Welch Lin (林維俊) said yesterday.
Mega Financial president Wu Hann-ching (吳漢卿) has offered to step down over the mishap, but the most profitable state-run financial institution has asked Wu to remain in his post until the government probe is completed.
Mega bank rejected media reports that its New York branch was fined for money laundering.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS