The turbulence surrounding Mega International Commercial Bank and the hefty fine levied on its New York branch has been going on for almost a month. The most recent explanation offered for the incident is that it was a “typographical error.”
The Executive Yuan’s task force overseeing the Mega Bank case has revealed that credit transactions between the bank’s Panama and New York branches in 2014 reached a total of US$491 million, but the report from the New York branch to the New York Department of Financial Services stated that the amount was mistakenly given as US$4.491 billion, and that this resulted in a misunderstanding.
Reading between the lines, the implication is that Mega Bank has been wrongfully given an excessive fine. The problem with this explanation is that it is lacking in persuasiveness and has only made the public even more curious about the bank’s dealings.
The financial report was in English, with the amount likely written as “491 million” or “4.491 billion,” which is very different from, and clearer than how it would be rendered in Chinese, in which 491 million would be written as 4.91 yi (100 million, 億), while 4.491 billion would be written as 44.91 yi. There is a huge difference between these two ways of writing it, and it is not a matter of a simple typo.
Even if the numbers were written using Arabic numerals, there would also be a difference of an extra decimal and three zeros, and there is very little chance that this would happen by mistake.
Furthermore, accounting requires that debit and credit balance out, which in itself provides an automatic control of how the sums flow.
Finally, most modern accounting software has functions to prevent mistaken input.
This is why the idea that a typo can occur in a bank accounting system that must focus on accuracy, and that the mistake would remain undiscovered for such a long time is utterly inconceivable. It also raises reasonable suspicions that the whole input mistake is the result of a lack of follow-up and lax controls.
Any process including an audit and a review would be able to discover this kind of mistake, and it is hard to believe that Mega Bank’s reports would not be subjected to any kind of checks before they were submitted. It is very likely that such a mistake would be the result of a lack of detailed and comprehensive planning.
Newly appointed Mega Financial Holding Co chairman Michael Chang (張兆順) is an experienced accountant and it is very unlikely that he would not understand this reasoning.
Furthermore, if this is really only a matter of a typo, that would mean that the US fine of US$180 million is also a mistake, and Mega Bank should do all it can to overturn the decision. It would only be reasonable to expect that the bank would not pay the fine just to put the whole affair at rest and live with what would in that case be the untruthful accusation of being guilty of money laundering. However, there are no signs that the bank is about to make such a move.
In addition to highlighting the bank’s diffidence, how would such an illogical approach be able to convince the general public?
Lai Chen-chang is a former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS