BNM fines AEON Credit RM520,000 over sanctions compliance breaches

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd (AEON Credit) has been fined RM520,000 for failing to comply with requirements relating to targeted financial sanctions (TFS). 

In a statement today, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said it imposed the administrative monetary penalty (AMP) after an on-site supervisory examination on AEON Credit revealed that a specified entity listed under the Domestic List was onboarded as its customer.

The Domestic List is a list of names and particulars of specified entities declared by the Home Affairs Minister under the relevant subsidiary legislation made under section 66B(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA).

The central bank said AEON Credit failed to reject a potential customer despite the entity being a positive match. 

“Additionally, there was also a delay in the freezing of the customer’s account upon confirmation that the customer was a specified entity. These breaches were attributed to lack of staff oversight and gap in AEON Credit’s standard operating procedure (SOP),” BNM said.

The central bank said AEON Credit has since taken remedial measures by enhancing its SOP and conducting refresher training for relevant staff to ensure compliance with TFS requirements.

“In deciding the AMP to be imposed, relevant aggravating and mitigating factors were considered.

“These include the severity of the breaches and AEON Credit’s lack of reasonable care in ensuring compliance with the TFS requirements, past compliance record and post-misconduct behaviour, including the effectiveness of remedial actions to prevent the recurrence of breaches,” it added.

BNM said it requires all reporting institutions (RI) to ensure compliance with TFS requirements and will not hesitate to take appropriate supervisory and/or enforcement actions should any RI fail to meet its legal and/or regulatory requirements. — Bernama