More than 700 key officials and politicians, including the president and vice president, are to be subjected to strict regulations against money laundering to ensure financial transparency and stability, the Cabinet said yesterday.
An amendment to the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), which was approved last year and is to take effect on Wednesday next week, stipulates that financial institutions and certain non-financial agencies must improve their review of clients who hold key political offices, as well as their relatives and close associates, to assess and manage the risk of money laundering.
The amendment stipulates improved enforcement of money laundering laws for the president and vice president; presidents, vice presidents, secretaries-general and deputy secretaries-general of the executive, legislative, judicial, control and examination branches; mayors and county commissioners and their deputies; ministers and deputy ministers; legislators; council speakers and deputy speakers; Presidential Office and National Security Council secretaries-general and their deputies; the Academia Sinica president and vice president; justices and the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court; the prosecutor-general; ambassadors and diplomatic representatives; directors of military units ranking lieutenant general or higher; directors and general managers of state-run businesses; directors of political parties; and the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission chief commissioner.
The officials’ parents, children, siblings, spouses and their siblings or partners living with them, extramarital partners and close business partners are to also be included in the regulation, as well as about 900 councilors at a later date.
Financial institutions, lawyers, accountants, notaries, real-estate brokers, land officials and jewelers are required to increase their client review and compliance with money-laundering laws.
If it is judged that a retired official should be placed under regulation, their relatives and close associates would also need to be regulated, the draft act stipulates.
The amendment would improve the nation’s anti-money laundering mechanism and rebuild financial regulations, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said.
To prepare for a review of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) next year, the Cabinet is to also legislate for international judicial cooperation and amend the Company Act (公司法) to improve the financial regulatory system, Lin said.
Despite being a founding member of the APG, Taiwan has failed to adequately prevent and control international financial crimes such as money laundering, and has been placed on the group’s watch list since an evaluation in 2007 and to the reinforced follow-up list in 2011, the Cabinet’s Anti-Money Laundering Office said.
The nation is to undergo another APG review next year, and should it fail to pass, Taiwanese financial agencies would be blacklisted internationally and the nation might be deprived of APG membership, Deputy Minister of Justice Tsai Pi-chung (蔡碧仲) said.
Taiwan is to be reviewed along with Hong Kong and China next year, which have been making legal efforts to regulate politicians’ overseas accounts, Tsai said, adding that it would be “embarrassing” if the nation scores less than Hong Kong or China.
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