Taiwan

Pre-approval will mean that  most ordinary mergers and acquisitions, and start-ups originating from abroad will need to be reported only after the fact.

The majority of banks' clients pose low money laundering risks, and should not be subject to the same level of scrutiny as high risk clients, said FSC chairman Wellington Koo.

FSC loosens restrictions on investment in Chinese equities in response to proposed increase of China weighting in MSCI emerging markets index.

Insufficient disclosures of corporate clients' beneficiaries by financial institutions was cited as one of Taiwan's shortcomings in the APG's latest report.

The APG was reportedly impressed by Taiwan's performance during its third round of mutual evaluations, which concluded last week.

Taiwan has amended its AML/CFT laws, forbidding anonymous cryptocurrency transactions and empowering the FSC to take action against noncompliant platform operators.

The FSC has fined the bank $129,000 for internal control failures that allowed two of its officers to misappropriate client funds, and ordered it to dismiss the officers responsible.

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering will conduct its mutual evaluation of Taiwan and its financial institutions from 5 November until 16 November.

Seven state-banks have raised fees for foreign remittances, saying the extra charges are needed to offset costs associated with upgrades to money laundering controls.

Brokers issuing ETNs must have a net worth exceeding $325mn and a capital adequacy ratio of at least 250%.