The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by OCBC Wing Hang Bank Limited on fraudulent web… read more
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited Central and Western District this afternoon (August 17) to keep abreast of the latest developments in the district. &n… read more
The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, met the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, Mr Ken Saito, at the Chief Executive’s Office this morning (August 17).
Mrs Lam welcomed Mr Saito’s visit to Hong Kong for the second year in a row to attend the Food Expo organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and promote Japanese food. Noting that she also visited the Food Expo last year and learnt that this year, as with last year, Japanese booths have been very well received by the general public, she said that this shows the love of Japanese gourmet food by Hong Kong people, making Hong Kong Japan’s largest export market for food and agricultural products over the years. She expressed the hope that, with the commissioning of the new campus of the International Culinary Institute of the Vocational Training Council later, exchanges and co-operation in culinary training between Hong Kong and Japan could be strengthened to provide more pathways and career development opportunities for local young people.
Mrs Lam said that Hong Kong attaches great importance to food safety and that following confirmation of safety and implementation of a gatekeeping system, Hong Kong has lifted import bans on vegetables, fruits, milk, milk beverages and dried milk from four Japanese prefectures, namely Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma, with conditions, since last month. She added that the Hong Kong authorities will closely monitor the situation of the import of Japanese food and maintain communication with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan to ensure food safety and safeguard public health.
Mrs Lam said that she will visit Japan later this year and looks forward to meeting with officials of Japan and attending various events to promote exchanges and co-operation between Hong Kong and Japan in different aspects.
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Monetary Authority (MA):
(a) has reprimanded Shanghai Commercial Bank Limited (SCOM) for contravening section 19(3) of Schedule 2 to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (AMLO) (Note 1) by failing to establish and maintain effective procedures for the purpose of carrying out its duty to continuously monitor business relationships;
(b) has ordered SCOM to submit to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), by a date and in a manner to be specified by the MA, a report prepared by an independent external advisor assessing whether the remedial measures implemented by SCOM are sufficient to address the contraventions and the effectiveness of the implementation; and
(c) has ordered SCOM to pay a pecuniary penalty of HKD5,000,000.
The disciplinary action (Note 2) follows an investigation by the HKMA which found that SCOM contravened three specified provisions of the AMLO (Note 3). In summary, SCOM did not:
(a) continuously monitor its business relationship with 33 customers by examining the background and purposes of their transactions that were identified as (i) complex, unusually large in amount or of an unusual pattern and (ii) having no apparent economic or lawful purpose, and setting out its findings in writing;
(b) establish and maintain effective procedures for the purpose of carrying out its duty under section 5 of Schedule 2 to the AMLO to continuously monitor business relationships; and
(c) carry out customer due diligence (CDD) measures in respect of certain pre-existing customers (Note 4) when a transaction took place with regard to each of the customers that (i) was, by virtue of the amount or nature of the transaction, unusual or suspicious, or (ii) was not consistent with SCOM’s knowledge of the customer or the customer’s business or risk profile, or with its knowledge of the source of the customer’s funds.
As regards the deficiencies in monitoring business relationships, although the relevant transactions were identified through SCOM’s Management Information System (MIS) reports, which took into account different customer risk levels and transaction types, and were selected by SCOM’s Compliance Department at the material time for further enquiry or investigation, SCOM had not adequately examined the background and purposes of those transactions and set out the findings in writing. SCOM also lacked effective policies and procedures for monitoring the handling of MIS alerts including properly recording the follow-up actions taken and monitoring the review time, resulting in significant delay in alert clearance. As for carrying out CDD measures in respect of pre-existing customers, while one of the customers conducted the relevant transactions as early as in May 2012, SCOM failed to identify those transactions at the material time as unusual or suspicious or not consistent with its knowledge of the customer and had not conducted CDD measures accordingly.
In deciding the disciplinary action, the MA took into account all of the relevant circumstances and factors, including the following:
(a) the need to send a clear deterrent message to the industry about the importance of effective internal anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) controls and procedures;
(b) SCOM has taken and will take extensive remedial measures to enhance its AML/CFT systems and controls; and
(c) SCOM has no previous disciplinary record and was co-operative throughout the investigation.
The Executive Director (Enforcement and AML) of the HKMA, Ms Carmen Chu, said, “This is a case concerning deficiencies in AML/CFT systems and controls in relation to transaction monitoring. While banks are expected to adopt a risk-based approach (RBA) in their AML/CFT efforts and it is unrealistic to expect a ‘zero failure’ outcome, a RBA can only be effective if risk is adequately understood and managed. Risk assessments are not static; monitoring of customer transactions and ongoing reviews are fundamental components of a reasonably designed RBA, and banks should have robust systems and controls in place. Under a RBA, when potential increase in risk is identified, transactions of existing low risk customers and pre-existing customers must also be adequately examined without delay, and reference can be made to various guidance provided by the HKMA, including the Guidance Paper on Transaction Screening, Transaction Monitoring and Suspicious Transaction Reporting.”
Relevant link: Statement of Disciplinary Action
Notes:
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (August 17) released the latest grading of water quality for 38 gazetted beaches and one non-gazetted beach (Discovery Bay) that are open for swimming.
Twenty beaches were rated as Good (Grade 1), 18 as Fair (Grade 2) and one as Poor (Grade 3).
Grade 1 beaches are:
| Cafeteria New Beach | Lo So Shing Beach |
| Cafeteria Old Beach | Lower Cheung Sha Beach |
| Cheung Chau Tung Wan Beach | Middle Bay Beach |
| Chung Hom Kok Beach | Repulse Bay Beach |
| Clear Water Bay Second Beach | South Bay Beach |
| Deep Water Bay Beach | St Stephen’s Beach |
| Hap Mun Bay Beach | Tong Fuk Beach |
| Hung Shing Yeh Beach | Trio Beach |
| Kiu Tsui Beach | Turtle Cove Beach |
| Kwun Yam Beach | Upper Cheung Sha Beach |
| Anglers’ Beach | Kadoorie Beach |
| Approach Beach | Lido Beach |
| Big Wave Bay Beach | Ma Wan Tung Wan Beach |
| Butterfly Beach | Pui O Beach |
| Casam Beach | Shek O Beach |
| Clear Water Bay First Beach | Silver Mine Bay Beach |
| Discovery Bay | Silverstrand Beach |
| Golden Beach | Stanley Main Beach |
| Hoi Mei Wan Beach | Ting Kau Beach |
| Castle Peak Beach |