The Executive Yuan passed the legislation and amendments of the “Anti-Fraud New Four Laws” on the 9th, adopting source control. The Financial Supervisory Commission stated that if operators fail to provide information about the involved parties, fail to retain data or transaction records, or fail to cooperate in establishing a joint defense and notification mechanism, they will be fined with a penalty ranging from NT$200,000 to NT$2,000,000, with a five-fold increase for severe cases.
Minister of the Interior Lin Chuyachang emphasized the importance of preventing fraud at the source under the specialized anti-fraud legislation, particularly targeting key industries including financial institutions, virtual asset service providers, telecommunications, online advertising platforms, third-party payment services, e-commerce, online gaming, etc., requiring them to fulfill their anti-fraud obligations.
In case operators do not comply with the regulations, depending on the type of business, they may face a maximum fine of less than NT$10,000,000, with continuous penalties until improvements are made, and different penalties based on the level of involvement in fraud crimes by customers or users, with the most severe penalty being cessation of services.
On the financial front, the Financial Supervisory Commission mentioned that deposit accounts, electronic payment accounts, credit cards, virtual asset accounts, etc., are considered regulatory targets.
Regarding measures, the Financial Supervisory Commission mentioned that in the prevention of dummy accounts, they will strengthen customer identity verification and enhance control measures such as suspending trading functions and refusing services.
To promptly control suspicious accounts and prevent illegal transactions, the Financial Supervisory Commission requires financial institutions to retain relevant information and transaction records and report to judicial police agencies. Furthermore, based on notifications from judicial police agencies, financial institutions will return remaining funds in accounts as virtual assets.
The Ministry of Justice indicated that although virtual currency exchanges are currently under the supervision of the Financial Supervisory Commission, it is only based on administrative regulations. However, after the legal amendments, criminal law will also be incorporated. In the future, operators will have to shoulder anti-fraud responsibilities, meaning that both individual and corporate exchanges, regardless of their scale, must be regulated, and foreign virtual currency exchanges must also establish a presence in Taiwan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission added that there are currently a total of 60-70 virtual currency exchanges, both domestic and international, with 25 of them having completed anti-money laundering compliance statements.