Who was sanctioned, and for what?

The Hong Kong branch of Indian Overseas Bank was reprimanded, ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of 8,500,000 HKD and required to carry out a look-back review of its transaction-monitoring alerts, submit a remedial plan and have its effectiveness assessed by an external adviser. Between May 2021 and January 2024 alerts were not properly followed up, unusual transactions of ten customers were not examined and documented, and senior management did not steer anti-money laundering controls effectively; a competent compliance officer, clear responsibilities and adequate training were lacking.

Authority / court

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Area of law

Money laundering and terrorist financing · Internal controls

Legal basis

s. 21(2)(a), (b), (c) AMLO (Cap. 615); Schedule 2 ss. 5(1)(c), 19(3), 23 AMLO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Financial services and insurance

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

No previous disciplinary record under the AMLO, cooperation with the regulator.

Liability of senior managers

The regulator found that senior management did not take a clear leadership role in anti-money laundering and did not appoint a competent compliance officer; the decision contains no measures against individuals.

Published

22 Jul 2025

Original amount 8,500,000 HKD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 22 Jul 2025.

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

The HKMA imposed a pecuniary penalty of HKD 4 million on China CITIC Bank International because, in the transaction monitoring system it used from November 2015, 13 of 33 detection rules and two core model rules were not implemented as intended until July 2018, so fewer alerts were generated. For 12 of 30 sampled customers, the bank did not examine the background and purpose of unusual transactions. The HKMA identified the lack of a maker-checker control over system values and inadequate acceptance testing as root causes.

Authority / court

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Area of law

Money laundering and terrorist financing · Internal controls

Legal basis

Section 21(2)(c) Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615); Sections 5(1)(c) und 19(3) Schedule 2 AMLO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Financial services and insurance

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

Remedial action, no previous disciplinary record under the AMLO and cooperation with the HKMA.

Published

6 Dec 2024

Original amount 4,000,000 HKD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 6 Dec 2024.

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

The HKMA imposed a pecuniary penalty of HKD 4 million on Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) because, between April 2019 and July 2022, the bank lacked effective procedures for changes to its transaction monitoring: data transfer from the core banking system was poorly controlled, acceptance tests were ineffective, and there were no procedures for following up a sharp fall in alerts from June 2019 or for regularly reviewing the scope of monitoring. Transactions of around 64,000 customers were not properly scrutinised, and for around 1,500 of them no trigger event review took place after dormant business relationships were reactivated.

Authority / court

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Area of law

Money laundering and terrorist financing · Internal controls

Legal basis

Section 21(2)(c) Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615); Sections 19(3) und 5(1) Schedule 2 AMLO

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

unknown

Sector

Financial services and insurance

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

Self-report, cooperation, remediation of the deficiencies and no previous disciplinary record.

Published

8 Nov 2024

Original amount 4,000,000 HKD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 8 Nov 2024.

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link

The futures broker Xinhu International Futures (Hong Kong) was publicly reprimanded and fined 9,000,000 HKD. Between December 2016 and March 2019 it did not assess the customer-supplied trading software used by 84 clients, did not adequately question deposits into six accounts that did not match the declared financial profile, and, lacking effective monitoring, failed to detect 12,413 trades in ten client accounts in which buyer and seller were the same (self-matched trades).

Authority / court

Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)

Area of law

Money laundering and terrorist financing · Internal controls

Legal basis

s. 194 SFO (Cap. 571); Schedule 2 ss. 5(1)(a)–(c), 23 AMLO (Cap. 615); AML Guideline paras. 2.1–2.3, 4.7.12, 5.1, 5.10, 5.11; Code of Conduct GP 2, GP 3, paras. 4.3, 5.1

Action

Fine

Status of proceedings

final

Sector

Financial services and insurance

Repeat case

no

Mitigating circumstances

Cooperation with the regulator, otherwise clean disciplinary record.

Liability of senior managers

Measures against individuals are not set out here.

Published

9 Oct 2024

Original amount 9,000,000 HKD, converted at the ECB reference rate of 9 Oct 2024.

Checked against the official source on 3 Oct 2026 · Direct link