A group of Hong Kong authorities, including the financial regulator HKMA, today announced a new taskforce to crack down on financial fraud in the country, saying: “Financial Crime undermines the integrity of our economy and the financial institutions central to it.”
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The Fraud and Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (FMLIT) will be made up of key representatives from government, law enforcement and the banking sector. The taskforce will create a new era of collaboration, resulting in shared intelligence, unified responses and greater awareness of the risk of fraud among consumers.
The Taskforce will include law enforcement, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and a number of banks together with the Hong Kong Association of Banks under the leadership of the police force. Currently, there are ten retail banks involved within the FMLIT: Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Hang Seng Bank Limited, Dah Sing Bank Limited, Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited, DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, The Bank of East Asia, Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited, and China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said in a statement that the FMLIT is attended by key sector bodies in a bid to enhance the detection and prevention of financial crime and money laundering practises. The new initiative represents a collective commitment of government and industry to tackle fraud.
Setting out the work of the new Taskforce, the HKMA said: “Fraud causes significant harm to companies and individuals while money laundering enables those who would abuse our financial services to hide their proceeds of crime. The Hong Kong Government has developed an anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regime over many years which reflects its determination to protect the integrity of our financial system and citizens from this harm and ensure that Hong Kong remains a safe and stable business environment.”
