Hong Kong central bank fines 4 banks HK$44.2M over rule violations

The Hong Kong central bank levied a fine totaling HK$44.2 million on four banks over breaches of the anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing regulations.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority penalized China Construction Bank (Asia) Corp. Ltd., CTBC Bank Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong Branch), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Ltd. and UBS AG, Hong Kong Branch after an investigation on the banks' systems and controls in compliance with the anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing regulations, according to a Nov. 19 release.

The regulator said the four lenders failed to carry out their duties to continuously monitor business relationships through ongoing customer due diligence. It said CTBC Bank's Hong Kong branch failed to take appropriate review steps to ensure that customer documents, data and information it obtained were up-to-date and relevant, while the other three banks did not conduct timely periodic reviews for certain customers.

All four banks also contravened the requirement of establishing and maintaining effective procedures for customer due diligence under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance.