Asia’s banks have this year seen a record amount of fines imposed by regulators for breaches of know your customer, anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing rules. Running up fines of billions of dollars is not the best business practice, especially in the middle of a global economic slump predicated by a once in a generation pandemic.
The fines haven’t been given out for trivial reasons. The 1MDB case in Malaysia hit headlines worldwide for corruption that went to the very top of the government. Meanwhile, Australia dealt with a case which shocked the public due to possible links to child abuse. No one doubts that in cases this serious some form of penalty is justified. Wary of the watchful eye of the Financial Action Task Force, regulators have been in some cases been preemptively checking in on their banks to ensure they don’t find themselves in such an embarrassing and damaging situation.
