Japan FSA to Issue Biz Improvement Order to Aeon Bank

Tokyo, Dec. 25 (Jiji Press)--Japan’s Financial Services Agency will issue a business improvement order to Aeon Bank over deficiencies in its measures against money laundering, informed sources said Wednesday.

Based on the banking law, the FSA is expected to tell Aeon Bank, affiliated with retail giant Aeon Co., to strengthen its risk management system.

The FSA has been conducting intensive inspections of financial institutions’ measures against money laundering since 2021. This will be the first administrative action against a bank in the series of inspections.

In a review report released in 2021 by the Financial Action Task Force, a global money laundering watchdog that also monitors measures to cut off terrorist financing, Japan was placed in the enhanced follow-up category, the second highest of three categories. Measures taken by financial business operators other than major financial institutions were deemed insufficient.

The FSA prepared guidelines for measures against money laundering, including risk assessment, and asked financial institutions to take action by the end of March this year.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]