Compliance Resources to Help you Stay Current

This guideline, issued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), provides a practical guidance to Financial Institutions (FI) in designing and implementing policies, procedures and controls to meet the relevant AML/CFT statutory and regulatory requirements.

This Guideline sets out the principles which the Monetary Authority (MA) uses when deciding whether to authorize virtual banks applying to conduct banking business in Hong Kong.

APRA Prudential Standard 221 Large Exposures requires authorized deposit-taking institutions to implement prudent measures and to set prudent limits to monitor and control their large exposures, on both a Level 1 and Level 2 basis. This Prudential Standard applies to all authorized deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) except:

1. Purchased payment facility providers (PPF providers)
2. Foreign ADIs in Australia that are subject to consolidated supervision by their home country supervisors
    

This Australian Prudential Standard sets out the requirements for a general insurer and a Level 2 insurance group to maintain a risk management framework and strategy that is appropriate to the nature and scale of its operations.

This Australian Prudential Standard requires Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) to manage, monitor and control the potential contagion risks which arise due the ADIs being a part of a conglomerate or a corporate group and the dealings between the ADIs and members of these conglomerates or groups.

The APRA Prudential Standard GPS 310 requires Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) to provide the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) access to independent advice from an auditor on matters relating to ADI operations and internal control processes.

This APRA Prudential Standard requires regulated institutions to manage and monitor potential business continuity risks and that the respective boards of these institutions consider business continuity risks as a part of the entire risk management system.

This APRA Prudential standard requires regulated institutions to carry out appropriate due diligence and monitoring of their outsourcing arrangements. The standard requires that regulated institutions have a board-approved policy, legally binding agreements and managing processes for outsourcing of material businesses. It also calls for consulting and notifying the APRA before regulated institutions enters into these outsourcing arrangements.

These Guidelines address requirements on the application of financial reporting standards and information to be disclosed in the financial statements of insurers. The Guidelines are applicable to all professional insurers licensed under the Insurance Act 1996 (IA).

This policy document on Risk Governance sets out a framework of principles to guide the board and senior management in effectively performing their risk oversight and risk control functions. These guidelines are applicable to all financial institutions. The major objective of these Guidelines is to ensure safe and sound operations of financial institutions.

The Liquidity Framework was introduced in 1998 to enhance liquidity management in banking institutions. It replaced the liquid asset ratio requirement. The Framework sets out to:

• Create awareness among banking institutions of their funding structure and their ability to handle short to medium-term liquidity problems
• Adopt a more efficient and on-going liquidity measurement and management for banking institutions
• Provide the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) with a better means of assessing the present and future liquidity position of banking institutions.

The Liquidity Framework is applicable to all commercial banks, finance companies and investment banks/merchant banks.
 

The Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR) is a monetary policy instrument available to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) for purposes of liquidity management. Banking institutions namely commercial banks, merchant/investment banks and Islamic banks should maintain balances in their Statutory Reserve Accounts (SRA) equivalent to a certain proportion of their eligible liabilities (EL), this proportion is called the SRR rate. The SRR is used to withdraw or inject liquidity when the excess or lack of liquidity in the banking system is perceived by the Bank to be large and long-term in nature. This requirement applies to commercial banks, merchant/investment banks and Islamic banks.

Islamic banking institutions mobilize a large proportion of their deposits in the form of ‘mudharabah’ (profit-sharing and loss-bearing) contract. Under the mudharabah contract, depositors (also known as Investment Account Holders or IAH) agree to participate in the financial activities undertaken by Islamic banking institutions and share the profit generated from financing and/or investment activities based on an agreed profit-sharing ratio. The assets funded under the mudharabah contract are commonly known as Profit-Sharing Investment Account (PSIA).

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has set out these Guidelines on Data Management and Management Information System (MIS) which outline high level guiding principles on sound data management and MIS practices that should be observed by financial institutions.

These guidelines implemented by the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) define the requirements on the obligations of financial institutions (FI) to assess and determine the fitness and propriety of key responsible persons. The major objective of these guidelines is to ensure that the financial institution is led by persons of integrity, credibility, and competency.

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has implemented this standard to ensure that a general insurer’s Board and senior management have neutral and impartial advice on operations, financial conditions and insurance liabilities. The standard came into effect on 1 July 2008.

These Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority guidelines are meant for applicants requiring authority for credit card issuing in Australia and/or authority for acquiring business as a specialist credit card institution (SCCI) in Australia.

These Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority Guidelines are meant for applicants requiring authorization to carry out banking services under Banking Act 1959 as provider of purchase payment facility (PPF Provider).

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) introduced these guidelines on risk management practices for an institution’s board of directors and senior management. The board of directors and senior management play pivotal roles in ensuring a sound risk management culture and environment. These guidelines are applicable to all financial institutions.

Malaysia introduced these guidelines with the aim of maintaining sound governance and operational arrangements in Money Services Businesses (MSB) as well as strengthening consumer protection. All licensees should ensure compliance with these guidelines.