The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) imposed fines totaling NT$334 million (US$12.06 million) on financial companies last year, a record, mainly due to a series of thefts by customer-relations staff, commission data showed.
It was the second consecutive year that such fines surpassed NT$300 million, after NT$326 million in 2020, the data showed.
The Banking Bureau last year imposed NT$112.9 million in fines, up 29 percent from a year earlier as it punished several banks for contraventions of the Banking Act (銀行法), breaches that were exposed after customer-relations staff stole money from clients, the data showed.
The commission in July fined Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) NT$30 million for oversight failures after staff over more than a decade stole NT$347 million from clients.
The sanction was the biggest fine that the FSC imposed last year, the data showed.
The regulator fined CTBC Bank (中信銀行) NT$14 million this week, ruling that it poorly exercised measures to prevent money laundering, creating a loophole for its staff to steal NT$230 million from clients.
It fined Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) and Bank of Panhsin (板信銀行) a combined NT$6 million for similar misconduct.
The commission in May fined Hong Kong-based Capital Target Ltd (建群) NT$25 million for faulty beneficiary disclosure, the second-largest amount last year, the data showed.
The Insurance Bureau imposed total fines of NT$135.4 million last year, flat from a year earlier, while the Securities and Futures Bureau imposed fines totaling NT$86 million, up from NT$84 million a year earlier.
The Insurance Bureau’s biggest fines were imposed on Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) and Chubb Corp Taiwan (美商安達產險), a combined NT$9 million.
Taipei Fubon Commercial was sanctioned over improper sales of investment-linked policies and fire insurance, while Chubb had poor internal controls and incorrect financial reports, the Insurance Bureau said.
The Securities and Futures Bureau issued 273 fines to securities firms and public companies, far more than the other two bureaus, but the average fine was generally lower.
Its largest were its fines imposed on three asset management firms — NT$4.5 million each — for alleged stock manipulation.
Despite the high fines, the commission on Thursday said that financial breaches had not risen much.
The maximum penalties for contraventions of the Banking Act and the Insurance Act (保險法) were increased NT$50 million last year, it added.
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