News

Taiwan stiffens penalties for financial crimes

January 13, 2004

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The Legislative Yuan passed revisions to seven financial laws on Jan. 13, allowing for heavier punishments for those convicted of financial crimes.

Under the revised rules, crimes such as hacking into the computer systems of financial institutions, issuing or using fake ATM cards or credit cards and attracting deposits without a license to operate as a bank will be subject to more severe punishments.

According to an Asia Pulse report, offenders could face imprisonment of up to 10 years, in addition to a fine of NT$100 million (U.S. $2.96 million). The punishments could also increase in proportion to the gains of the offenders.

The revised rules will apply to the Banking Law, the Financial Holding Company Law, the Law on the Management of Financial Security, the Trust Law, the Law on Credit Cooperation, the Insurance Law and the Security Transaction Law.

Taiwan is in the midst of a plan to convert its ATM system -- including cards, machines and host systems -- from magnetic strip to chip this year. The effort is expected to cost NT$15 billion (U.S. $430 million). The move was driven by several card skimming incidents at ATMs in 2003, including one involving the Bank of Taiwan.

(See related stories Taiwan to begin converting ATM cards to chip in September, ATM fraud driving move to chip cards in Taiwan, Taiwan police arrest two suspects in ATM fraud, seeking several more, Some Taiwan banks may not meet accelerated ATM card conversion deadline and Taiwan to spend $430M to convert ATM cards to chip)