The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has fined Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) NT$10 million (US$323,677) over the lender’s “poor internal controls,” the commission said yesterday.
A regular inspection found that Taishin Bank had over the past two years collected undue debt from at least 10 people, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) told a news conference.
The people targeted were spouses or colleagues of debtors, Lin said, adding that financial regulations only allow banks to collect debt from debtors or their guarantors.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
That Taishin Bank targeted the wrong people and even sent them legal documents indicates that the lender has no sufficient internal control mechanism and did not comply with the regulations, he said.
The commission also found that Taishin Bank had reached out to at least 100,000 relatives of debtors over the past 10 years to collect debt, Lin said.
The commission yesterday also asked Taishin Bank to use a tighter risk factor to calculate its capital adequacy.
The bank might need NT$2 billion in fresh capital to maintain its adequacy level under the tighter rules, the commission said.
The penal measures on Taishin Bank came after the commission on Wednesday fined 11 financial institutions, including Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) and China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), for poor internal controls.
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