Ethical Practice in Operations

With high expectations from all sectors regarding friendly financial services, as well as fast-evolving fraudulent activity, we value fair treatment of customers and fraud prevention as main priority. On October 27, 2023, officials of the FSC, CIB, and scholars discussed two topics at the "Ethical Operations and Treating Customers Fairly" forum with the expectation of setting a more approachable financial environment that is safe from fraud and scams.

We deliver honest operations and clean governance, which is reflected in the "2023 Clean Governance and Service Indicator Survey" by the MOF. We scored 9/10 in "Confidence in Integrity", show strong recognition from our employees and customers. We have good faith in the continuous improvement in our overall performance of the coming year, with support from both employees and our customers.

Our management unit and colleagues are committed to practicing ethical operations in our everyday business. In 2023, though we received no determination from the authority, three cases were reported, two of which were dismissed by the president and handled by the Department of Ethics. The other case was examined by the Bank's Reporting Case Review Committee and some of the reports were found to be substantiated. After the President approved the results of the review, the Compliance of Department continue to handle the subsequent matters.

There were no cases reported and penalty from the authorities regarding a violation of discrimination, information confidentiality, conflict of interest, antitrust and anti-competitive behavior, money laundering and insider trading, environment, health and safety, or whistleblowing in 2022 and 2023.

ISO 37001 Anti-bribery Management System

To ensure we treat our customers fairly, we have adopted the Procedures for Ethical Management as part of our culture. In July 2023, we became ISO 37001 certified and are the first financial institute in Taiwan to be a BSI-verified Wealth Management Business. For more information, please visit our website.

Whistleblower System

BOT's Guidelines for the "Policy for the Whistleblower System" and "Standard Operating Procedure for the whistleblower System" regulates the types of cases, process flow, and whistleblower protection. In 2022, subsidiary staff fell under the reportable scope.

• Acceptance

  • Acceptance is determined upon case arrival. Cases are forwarded to competent offices for review.
  • Cases relating to subsidiaries are forwarded by Dpt. of Compliance to the President for approval, and followed up by subsidiaries according to guidelines.

• Investigation

  Cases are forwarded by the receiver to the president, who determines the investigator, who should exercise their independent power to conduct an investigation, and, once a case is approved, carry out the investigation and make proposals within 30 days of receipt of the case.

• Review

  Upon receiving a proposal, the Case Review Committee member should preside over a review meeting within two weeks and reach to a conclusion.

• Reinspection

  If a case comprising a respondent who holds the position of director or management position at the same level as senior executive president or higher is not accepted, its non-acceptance, investigation report, and resolution or conclusion should be submitted to the Review Committee for reinspection.

• Action Plan

  If a case is found to be true after review or reinspection, BOT will oversee the responsible units in re-examining the internal control system and operating procedures, and propose action plans.

We received three cases in 2023; all have been processed according to BOT's "Policy for the Whistleblower System" and reporters notified. Two cases forwarded to the president by the Department of Compliance were dismissed and referred to the Department of Ethics. The third case was taken in by BOT's Case Review Committee and partially sustained. The case reached the president for review, and was followed up by the Department of Compliance.

Whistleblower Protection

Anti-corruption Training

To ensure every staff members acts with honesty in their position and follows the law, we employ a number of approaches to raise awareness of honest operations and anti-corruption principles. Employees can log into the "Ethics Guidelines for Civil Servants Online Login Management System" to report any incidents of entreaties or lobbying, gifts, and gratuities, dinner parties or other entertainment activities, and other integrity-related incidents. In 2023, a total of 23 anti-corruption speeches and training were held. There were 3,026 logs of integrity-related incidents and zero violations of the law.