Standard Chartered Fined By Taiwan After Employee’s Embezzlement

Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) was fined NT$5 million ($168,500) for inadequate internal controls after an employee in Taiwan embezzled funds through a credit card business-related loophole.

The Financial Supervisory Commission also ordered the bank to fire the employee in the case, according to a statement on its website yesterday.

“We respect the regulator’s decision and we take this matter seriously,” Joyce Li, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman at Standard Chartered, said in an e-mail. “This is an isolated incident and we have taken actions to prevent re-occurrence.”

This was the second time in less than a year that Taiwan’s financial regulator penalized the London-based bank. The FSC fined Standard Chartered NT$6 million in August over lax customer data controls, and barred the lender from accepting faxed applications for credit loans for the rest of 2012.

Standard Chartered in December agreed to pay $327 million of fines to U.S. authorities after regulators alleged it violated U.S. sanctions with Iran.

Bloomberg