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The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has filed civil High Court proceedings against an online share broker for allegedly breaching anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism laws.
The authority alleged a number of issues relating to Tiger Brokers, including failing to conduct customer due diligence, failing to report suspicious activities and failing to keep records in accordance with the law.
The case will proceed to a penalty hearing before the High Court, with the FMA submitting Tiger Brokers be ordered to pay a penalty of $900,000.
The penalty would be determined by the court.
Tiger Brokers is the New Zealand-based subsidiary of Singapore-based Tiger Fintech, and provides share brokering services through its online trading platform, Tiger Trade.
The proceedings follow the FMA issuing a formal warning to Tiger Brokers in March 2020, for failing to have a number of adequate anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing protections in place.
It said after issuing the warning, the authority opened an investigation into Tiger Brokers' compliance with the law, including obtaining a sample of customer files and other documents required for record-keeping.
The investigation found Tiger Brokers' non-compliance required enforcement action through court proceedings.
"The FMA considers Tiger Brokers' record-keeping breaches are systemic and significant as they are not confined to the sample of customer files," the authority said.
It also alleged that "Tiger Brokers' records were not readily accessible and readily convertible into English as required by the Act".