The Auckland High Court has ordered Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited to pay $900,000 for breaching the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act 2009 (the Act), in proceedings brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko.
The FMA case rested on four causes of action, that Tiger Brokers has admitted to, including:
Failing to conduct customer due diligence (including standard, enhanced and additional customer due diligence on certain clients)
Failing to terminate an existing business relationship with any customer where it was unable to conduct customer due diligence
Failing to report suspicious activities; and
Failing to keep records in accordance with the Act’s requirements.
The effect of Tiger’s breaches was that, between April 2019 and January 2020, approximately $NZD60.8m was transacted through New Zealand’s financial system without proper checks and controls in place. Tiger’s customer due diligence and record-keeping breaches were of greatest magnitude – the former extended to a least 3,768 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 FMA investigation into these breaches commenced following a formal warning issued to Tiger Brokers in April 2020.
In his judgment, Justice Gault said: “Part 2 of the Act plays an important role in New Zealand’s regulatory landscape. Its purposes are to detect and deter money laundering and the financing of terrorism; maintain and enhance New Zealand’s international reputation; and to contribute to public confidence in the financial system.”
Margot Gatland, FMA Head of Enforcement, said: “The judgment reinforces the importance of these laws in maintaining the integrity of New Zealand’s financial markets; non-compliance is a serious matter. 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.
“This case demonstrates that the FMA can and will use a wide range of tools to deal with a firm’s approach to compliance, both to stop immediate harm continuing, and where the misconduct is serious, take stronger enforcement action through the courts.
“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 is the New Zealand-based subsidiary of Tiger Fintech (Singapore) PTE Limited and provides share brokering services through an online trading platform, Tiger Trade.
在金融市場管理局（FMA）——Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko提起的訴訟中，奧克蘭高等法院已下令老虎經紀人（新西蘭）有限公司因違反2009年《反洗錢和打擊資助恐怖主義法》（以下簡稱 “該法”）支付90萬美元。
FMA案基於老虎經紀公司承認的四個訴訟理由，包括：
未能對客戶進行盡職調查（包括對某些客戶進行標準的、增強的和額外的客戶盡職調查）；
在無法進行客戶盡職調查的情況下，未能終止與任何客戶的現有業務關係；
未能報告可疑活動；
未能按照該法的要求保存記錄。
老虎違規行爲的影響是，在2019年4月至2020年1月期間，在沒有適當檢查和控制的情況下，通過新西蘭的金融系統進行了約6,080萬新西蘭元的交易。老虎的客戶盡職調查和記錄保存違規行爲最嚴重——前者延伸到至少3,768名客戶。
記錄保存的違規行爲代表了老虎在整個業務中的軟弱合規性，在2019-2020年，AML/CFT報告年度，該業務包括69,705至126,230名客戶和交易，總價值在36億至352億美元之間。
聯邦緊急事務管理局對這些違規行爲的調查是在以下事件之後開始的 向老虎經紀公司發出正式警告 在 2020 年 4 月。
高特法官在判決中說：“該法案的第二部分在新西蘭的監管格局中起着重要作用。其目的是偵查和制止洗錢和資助恐怖主義的行爲；維護和提高新西蘭的國際聲譽；增強公衆對金融體系的信心。”
聯邦金融管理局執法主管瑪格特·加特蘭說：“該判決強化了這些法律在維護新西蘭金融市場完整性方面的重要性；違規是一個嚴重的問題。法院認定，Tiger Brokers未能適當審查客戶，對本應引起擔憂的活動做出回應，也沒有按照該法案要求的方式保存記錄。這些都是反洗錢/打擊資助恐怖主義舉報實體的核心義務。
“該案表明，FMA可以而且將會使用各種工具來處理公司的合規方針，既可以阻止直接傷害的繼續，也可以在不當行爲嚴重的情況下，通過法院採取更強有力的執法行動。
“未能按照《反洗錢/打擊資助恐怖主義法》的要求保存記錄，嚴重阻礙了聯邦金融管理局監督合規情況和確保該制度有效的能力。總部位於新西蘭的反洗錢/打擊資助恐怖主義舉報實體如果不確保履行新西蘭法律規定的合規義務，就不能將合規義務外包給第三方或依賴海外母公司。”
Tiger Brokers是Tiger Fintech（新加坡）私人有限公司在新西蘭的子公司，通過在線交易平臺Tiger Trade提供股票經紀服務。
