Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice Proposes Amendments in AML Laws to Strengthen Fraud Measures

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) called for adequate measures in AML compliance and a streamlined system, allowing police to access transaction information about all high-risk entities and individuals.

Taiwan’s primary government department, the Ministry of Justice, proposed amendments in anti-money laundering derivatives to restrict all the high-risk individuals involved in illicit activities and ban those people for 5 years who were found guilty of selling their identity information or account numbers. The proposed amendments are against governing accounts involved in money laundering cases. These proposed changes came under the Money Laundering Act, passed in May, and introduced 3 years of imprisonment or a penalty of US$31,049 for people found guilty of selling financial accounts and their identity information. These amendments will protect the integrity of the worldwide financial ecosystem as well as assist Taiwan in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. 

Under the current act, if a person is found guilty of selling their personal information or selling accounts the first time, they will get a warning, or if a person sells three or more accounts on the first violation or violates the law again within five years would face imprisonment, penalty, or both. According to the current act, it’s compulsory for all financial institutes, digital currency wallets, and fintech platforms to immediately close users’ accounts if they are found involved in fraudulent activities. 

The MOJ proposed amendments to these regulations and urged the government that if people were found guilty of the first offence, banks should have restricted them from all types of transactions. Banks should also reject their applications to open a new account till the five-year restriction period. Further, the ministry added that the banned account owners only handle more than $311 daily to pay utilities, penalties, other fees and payments, deposits, and bank transaction charges are also included in this limit. Restricted accounts can only use in-person transfers; they are not eligible to access online banking services and link accounts to other digital payment platforms. 

The suggested amendments further call for the development of a system that would enable law enforcement to concurrently obtain transaction data on restricted persons from financial institutions worldwide.

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