The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) fined financial institutions and publicly listed firms a total of NT$107.07 million (US$3.29 million) in the first half of the year, about 2 percent lower than the NT$108.78 million imposed during the same period last year, data from the financial regulator showed yesterday.
The fines have reached about 38.98 percent of this year’s NT$274.68 million penalty target, the commission said.
The fines were given to correct the firms’ deficiencies, rather than as a means of generating income, it said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
In addition to fines, the regulator’s penalties — issued by the Banking Bureau, the Insurance Bureau and the Securities and Futures Bureau — include corrections, improvements, warnings and restrictions, and a company can be required to dismiss or suspend directors, supervisors and managers.
In the first two quarters, the Banking Bureau imposed NT$39.66 million in fines, up 2.22 percent from a year earlier as it punished several banks for financial services misconduct and breaches related to internal controls and corporate governance, the data showed.
Among the severest penalties was a NT$12 million fine imposed on Taichung Commercial Bank Co (台中商銀) in February for oversight failures after chairman Wang Kuei-fong (王貴鋒) was found to have misspent more than NT$1 billion in corporate funds on personal luxuries.
The bureau imposed the second-highest fines of NT$8 million each on Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行).
It punished Shin Kong in January, as the bank poorly exercised measures to prevent staff from misappropriating clients’ funds through online banking services and through improper financial dealings with clients, while Cathay United was penalized in March after a branch clerk misappropriated clients’ funds.
The Insurance Bureau issued NT$33 million in fines in the first six months, down 4.35 percent from a year earlier, with the largest fine of NT$9 million levied on the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Vie’s (法國巴黎人壽).
The second-largest fine it gave was NT$6 million to the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Risques Divers (法國巴黎產物保險).
Both fines were related to poor corporate governance and internal controls.
The Securities and Futures Bureau handed out fines of NT$34.41 million in the first half, down 4.31 percent year-on-year, with the largest being fines imposed on Time Securities Investment Consulting Co (時間投顧) and Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信) — NT$1.2 million each — for a lack of internal controls.
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