HKMA Fines China CITIC for AML Violations and System Failures

HKMA monetary authority has announced that the China CITIC  has been found guilty of not following the rules and regulations of anti-money laundering. Hong Kong Monetary Authority has examined the internal operations of the CITIC to make sure that they are following the rules of AML. The HKMA has found several issues in the whole system regarding the compliance of Anti-money laundering and fined CITIC USD 514,088 as a penalty. Some issues were found in their transaction systems which was a suspicious activity. Despite providing the rules and standards to CITIC, they have been found guilty. All organizations have to make sure that they must have to follow the rules and speak out against any criminal and suspicious activity. 

Besides, it was observed that CITIC has not implemented the proper system for the investigation of internal operations related to suspicious transactions. They have been found causing troubles with the whole system including the alterations in the rules and alerts that were not active. CITIC was unable to detect the suspicious transactions and this led to a big concern about the security of the banks. 

Moreover, during this happening, HKMA also found WeChat Pay for not following the rules and standards of the AML process. These detections of suspicious activities show that HKMA is vigilant in detecting criminal activities throughout especially in financial organizations. 

During the implementation of the fines on CITIC and WeChat Pay, HKMA considered several aspects that how serious was the problem and whether CITIC took actions timely to prevent such suspicious activities or not. They have also observed and evaluated the previous history of the CITIC operations and whether they have not followed the rules in the past. Also, HKMA was trying to send robust instructions to the financial institutions asking them to follow the provided rules and regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in the companies. 

Additionally, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has announced that every organization has to follow stringent rules for the continuous monitoring of transactions to prevent financial crime. They have also provided banks with strong rules and regulations to monitor regular transactions and the companies have to promptly take action against such activities to avoid fines and penalties. These fines in China are a reminder for all the financial institutions and organizations out there that they have to follow the rules and regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. All companies need to understand that these rules are for the better and safe operations of the companies.