Chinese financial regulators are investigating The Bank of East Asia over allegations the Hong Kong-based lender may have been used to pay out large sums of money to executives at a provincial government bank.
Following accusations in the Chinese media, Hong Kong publication The South China Morning Post has published a report on how senior executives at the Yantai city government-controlled, Evergrowing Bank, are claimed to have obtained some 70 million yuan worth of funds through Bank of East Asia (BEA) corporate credit cards.
Unusual Case
If it is proven that there were indeed failures in the Hong Kong headquartered bank's internal monitoring processes, it would become one of the first instances where a foreign bank was involved in an anti-money laundering case inside China.
A BEA spokesperson said the bank had followed the correct Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
