Tiger Brokers has been ordered to pay $900,000 by the Auckland High Court following multiple breaches in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act.
The case brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko follows four breaches between April 2019 and January 2020, when approximately $60.8 million was moved through New Zealand's financial system via Tiger Brokers without proper checks and controls in place.
In a statement, the FMA said Tiger's "customer due diligence and record-keeping breaches were of greatest magnitude — the former extended to a least 3768 customers".
"The record-keeping breaches were representative of Tiger’s weak compliance approach across its business which, in the 2019-2020 AML/CFT reporting year, comprised between 69,705 and 126,230 customers and transactions to a gross total value of between $3.6 billion and $35.2 billion," the authority said.
The specific charges that Tiger has admitted to include:
- Failing to conduct customer due diligence
- Failing to terminate an existing business relationship with any customer where it was unable to conduct customer due diligence
- Failing to report suspicious activities
- Failing to keep records in accordance with the AML/CFT Act’s requirements.
FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland said the judgement reinforced the notion that non-compliance is a "serious matter" in terms of maintaining the integrity of the country's financial markets.
"The court found Tiger Brokers failed to appropriately vet customers, respond to activities that should have raised concerns, and maintain records in the manner required by the Act. These are all core obligations for an AML/CFT-reporting entity," she said.
"A failure to keep records, as required by the AML/CFT Act, severely hampers the FMA’s ability to monitor compliance and ensure the regime is effective. New Zealand-based AML/CFT reporting entities cannot outsource compliance obligations to third parties or rely on parent companies overseas without ensuring that they meet compliance obligations under New Zealand law.”
Tiger Brokers in New Zealand is a subsidiary of Tiger Fintech PTE Limited based in Singapore, and provides share brokering services through Tiger Trade, an online trading platform.
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