The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/21
By: Matthew Fulco
New York regulators’ fining of Mega Bank last year for lax compliance practices was
a wake-up call for Taiwan, which has since moved swiftly to brush up its international compliance on money-laundering.
In a victory for the nation’s regulators, Taiwan in July was removed from a regional list of countries judged to have insufficient money-laundering controls. Taiwan had spent months revising legislation and pushing its financial institutions to crack down on money laundering as it sought to be eliminated from a list that put it in the same category as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea.
“We revised anti-money laundering legislation and enacted a law to prevent terrorism financing, bringing Taiwan into line with international standards,” Hugh Hung, an auditor in the Banking Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), said by email. The government this March also established an Anti-Money Laundering Office under the Executive Yuan, directed by a minister without portfolio.
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