Hong Kong Monetary Authority Imposes Disciplinary Action on Indian Overseas Bank Branch Under AML Regulations

Recently, on July 22, 2025, the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) released an official communication under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, informing the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has imposed a disciplinary action on its Hong Kong Branch (IOBHK) for violation of Section 23, 19 (3), and paragraph (c) of Section 5(1) of Schedule 2 to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO) between May 2021 and January 2024.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) says this violation relates to the deficiencies in the transaction monitoring system of the branch. These systems are used to alert the bank about suspicious financial transactions, and the failure to handle these alerts appropriately is considered a serious violation under AML/CTF rules.

On noticing these violations, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has asked the IOB’s Hong Kong branch to adopt the following actions:

• The branch must conduct a look-back review of alerts that were generated during the affected period to ensure any missed suspicious activity is now examined.
• Submit a remedial action plan, meaning the branch must come up with a plan to fix the shortcomings identified and send it to the HKMA.
• Appoint an independent external advisor to assess whether the remedial actions are working properly and file a report on the same to the authority.
• Pay the imposed monetary penalty on the branch for the violations. (However, the exact amount for the violation is not mentioned in the communication.)

IOB has clarified that both the bank and its Hong Kong branch have taken preventive steps to ensure these kinds of deficiencies do not happen again in future. They have also made their internal systems and processes related to anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring stronger.

The bank reported that this action does not have any material impact on its overall financial position or day-to-day operations.