Anti-Money Laundering Course (English)

“Ongoing Monitoring and Case Studies” course (English) co-organized by our Association and Institute of Professional Education and Knowledge (PEAK) will be held on 25 January 2018 (Thursday night). Since sufficient staff training is significantly effective in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and HKC&ED requires MSOs to receive relevant AML continuous training, our Association encourages MSOs to proactively participate as well as arrange and encourage their staff to attend our courses. This is also a good opportunity to raise staff’s legal awareness and enhance their knowledge on the required level of compliance.
The course only costs MSOA Member HK$380 each. To verify the eligibility to the special discount, applicants must enroll in the course through the Hong Kong Money Service Operators Association. For more details or any queries, please visit our website or call our hotline at 3176 2004.

The Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC), the Hong Kong Police Force has sent letters regarding prevention of telephone deceptions to all Money Service Operators (MSOs). Due to the frequent occurrence of such type of deceptions and the ever-changing modus operandi of fraudsters, the Hong Kong Police Force reminds licensed MSOs must adopt all reasonable measures and stay vigilant at all times in order to mitigate the risk of money laundering. If there is any suspicion toward transactions, MSOs should not proceed such transactions.

Our Association appeals to all MSOs to post the obtained posters regarding prevention of telephone deception attached in the letter at visible locations and reminds front-line staff to ask remitters to read the poster contents when handling remittances. If there is any suspicions during transactions, please immediately call enquiry hotline 18222 to let people in needs get timely assistance. (Please refer to our Association’s “website”)

Money service operator convicted of operating without licence

A woman was fined $15,000 in total today (29 November 2017) at Eastern Magistrates' Courts for operating a money service without a valid licence.

Acting on information, officers of Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) found the woman operated the money service between 6 October and 7 November 2016 without a licence from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise... Read More

Statement of disciplinary action

The sole proprietor of Trust Money Exchange was ordered by the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) on 27 November 2017 to pay a pecuniary penalty of $21,000 for contravening the customer due diligence and record-keeping requirements as stipulated in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) Ordinance. This is the first disciplinary action taken against a money service operator (MSO), with a pecuniary penalty imposed, since the implementation of the Ordinance.

A compliance inspection conducted by C&ED officers revealed that the proprietor had failed to identify, verify and record the identification of originators and customers in respect of remittance and money exchange transactions conducted between May 2013 and April 2014, contravening the requirements under the Ordinance. The proprietor was prosecuted in June 2015 and sentenced by a court to a community service order. The C&ED took further disciplinary action against the proprietor in order to send a deterrent message to the MSO sector and remind the sector’s members of the importance of complying with the statutory requirements of the Ordinance. Read More

Hong Kong’s new police anti-fraud squad freezes HK$99 million in scammers’ accounts in just five months

The Hong Kong police force’s new anti-fraud squad has dealt with about 450 requests to halt the payment of a total of HK$880 million lost in various online and phone rackets in less than five months, prompting the force plan to double its manpower, the Post has learned. Since the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre was set up in July, the seven-member team has helped freeze nearly HK$99 million before the money was transferred out of the scammers’ bank accounts…Read More

Quality of fake 'supernotes' found in Seoul fan suspicions that North Korea is forging $100 bills

Suspicions are growing that North Korea has resumed forging $100 dollar bills that are so realistic that they are virtually indistinguishable from genuine currency. It took a team of forgery specialists at South Korea's KEB Hana Bank to confirm that a single $100 bill found at a branch in Seoul in November was a fake. The discovery has triggered alarm because authorities have no idea how many similar "supernotes" - named because they are so similar to real banknotes…Read More

China puts US$15,000 annual personal cap on overseas bank card withdrawals

New limits on the amount of money people can withdraw from their Chinese bank accounts while overseas will come into effect on Monday, in the latest move by Beijing to tighten its capital account controls and curb money outflows.

Under the new rules individuals will be allowed to withdraw a maximum of 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) a year, regardless of how many separate bank accounts or ATM cards they have...Read More