State-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) was yesterday fined NT$10 million (US$360,972) for its lax internal control over 28 mortgages totaling NT$350 million, whose applications were made by dummy accounts, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
Mega Bank became the nation’s third bank to be punished for failing to detect mortgage applications made by dummy accounts. Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) was fined NT$3 million in 2016 for offering mortgages to 34 figurehead accounts, some of whom belonged to vagrants, and Hwatai Bank (華泰銀行) was fined NT$3 million in 2018, commission data showed.
“It seems that this specific type of mortgage fraud has not been effectively curbed among local banks, ” Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) told a videoconference in New Taipei City.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
An employee surnamed Shih (石) working at Mega Bank’s Sindian branch (新店) in New Taipei City approved the mortgages from July in 2015 to the end of 2019.
However, the lender last year found in an internal audit that the mortgage applications were made by figureheads who used funds from a third party to repay the loans, Huang said.
Shih did not review the applicants’ profiles or conform to the bank’s loan approval criteria while approving the applications, and even helped transfer the third-party deposit money into the dummy accounts, he said.
Prosecutors have been working on the case since last year and have charged Shih, her ex-husband, surnamed Hsu (許), and a land administration agent surnamed Chou (周) with contraventions of the Banking Act (銀行法) and fraud, local media reported.
Shih reportedly worked with Hsu, who was a real-estate agent, and allegedly colluded with Chou to inflate the prices of the apartments she bought in Taipei and New Taipei City to obtain higher mortgages, and used the loan to buy other properties, local media reported.
Huang did not provide further details, but said that Mega Bank has made many mistakes in the mortgage operations, including incorrect collateral appraisal, and allowing the same employee to review loan applications and appraise collateral.
Mega Bank has estimated that it would likely incur a loss of NT$22 million due to the 28 problematic mortgages, Huang said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald