2018.3.30
Elva Chuang
The Financial Supervisory Commission issued the Jin-Guan-Zheng-Chi-1070306590 Directive of March 30, 2018 (hereinafter, the “Directive”) to announce the requirement that the supervisor of the legal compliance unit of a futures commission merchant may serve concurrently as the head of the legal unit and the head of the dedicated anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing unit. This requirement came into effect on the day of its announcement.
Pursuant to Article 27, Paragraph 1 of the Regulations Governing the Establishment of Internal Control Systems by Service Enterprises in Securities and Futures Markets, the Financial Supervisory Commission issued this Directive to reiterate that dedicated futures commission merchants that concurrently act as futures proprietary merchants and futures commission merchants, the futures subsidiaries of financial holding companies and integrated securities firms that concurrently operate futures business are required to set up a legal compliance unit that reports to the General Manager to take charge of the planning, management and implementation of the compliance system for a futures commission merchant. In addition, the board of directors shall assign a seniorexecutive to serve as the chief compliance officer of the company to take general charge of legal compliance matters. In addition, appropriate and competent sales representatives shall be deployed. The chief compliance officer and sales representatives shall be qualified futures sales representatives. Before a futures commission merchant applies to the Financial Supervisory Commission for launching a new business type, the chief compliance officer shall issue an opinion that indicates compliance with laws and regulations and internal regulations and sign the opinion to assume responsibility.
In addition, this Directive requires that a chief compliance officer shall not serve concurrently in another internal position except for the head of the legal unit and the head of the dedicated anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing unit. However, for a securities firm that operates futures business concurrently, the compliance mattersof its futures department may still be handled concurrently by the legal compliance unit of the securities firm.