Hong Kong Watchdog Fines JPMorgan Over Money Laundering Controls

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong Monetary Authority fined the local unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. HK$12.5 million ($1.6 million) for failing to meet anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws.

JPMorgan Hong Kong violated six provisions of the rules between April 2012 and February 2014, the HKMA said in a statement Friday. The bank didn’t conduct relevant customer due diligence and handled wire transfers on the SWIFT messaging system without including the names of the originators.

Hong Kong introduced anti-money laundering laws in 2012 and State Bank of India was the first to be fined in 2015 followed by Coutts & Co AG and Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd. In October 2017, the HKMA said it was investigating eight banks for alleged violations.

JPMorgan’s Hong Kong unit had self-identified and reported certain deficiencies, and had taken positive and extensive remediation work, the HKMA said. It added that the bank has no previous disciplinary record in relation to the anti-money laundering ordinance.

To contact the reporters on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues

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