As of September 2025, the central bank proposed cutting and simplifying 124 out of 298 administrative procedures, representing 41.6 per cent of the total. This initiative has reduced processing time by hundreds of days and saved more than VNĐ7.6 billion in costs. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced that it has cleaned up 154 million bank accounts and flagged nearly 300,000 customers for suspected fraud, blocking transactions worth a combined VNĐ1.5 trillion (US$56.9 mil

The ICAC charged six individuals on Monday (October 6) after a corruption investigation revealed that a Police Sergeant, together with an insurance agent, had recruited his family members, friends and Police colleagues to pose as dummy insurance agents and policyholders to take out 20 bogus insurance policies using false information to deceive two insurers into releasing payments of commissions, bonuses and allowances totalling about $3 million. Lam Hin-ho, 36, Police Sergean

Hong Kong Customs detected two suspected smuggling cases involving ocean-going vessels on September 18 and 26. Large batches of suspected smuggled goods with a total estimated market value of about $170 million were seized. Through intelligence analysis and risk assessment, Customs discovered that criminals intended to use ocean-going vessels to smuggle goods. Strategies were thus formulated, and four suspicious containers scheduled to depart from Hong Kong to Southeast Asia

According to the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (Cap. 109) amended by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region through the Tobacco Control Legislation (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, the duty stamp system will be implemented to help distinguish between duty-paid and duty-not-paid cigarettes. Hong Kong Customs launched a three-month pilot run for the duty stamp system on October 6 and plans to implement the first phase of the system in the fourth quarter of 20

Hong Kong Customs conducted an enforcement operation with the Mainland and Macao Customs from September 15 to 30, during which inspections of goods across the three places and destined for America, Europe, Japan and Korea were stepped up to combat cross-boundary and transshipment counterfeiting activities. During the operation, Hong Kong Customs detected 18 cases and seized about 45 000 suspected counterfeit goods, including watches, handbags, footwear and fragrances, with a

A former bank employee and an intermediary were charged by the ICAC yesterday (October 2) for allegedly conspiring together to accept bribes totalling over RMB13,000, i.e., about HK$15,000, for assisting clients of the intermediary to open bank accounts. Similarly, the bank employee had allegedly offered bribes to a colleague, but his offer was rejected. Chan Chun-hei, 30, then senior universal banker of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC); and Zhang

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), in collaboration with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), announced the launch of the IADS Developer Hackathon and held the Kick-off Ceremony today (2 October), marking the beginning of a multi-month innovation journey to foster innovation for the Interbank Account Data Sharing (IADS) initiative, and transform banking services through secure, customer-consented data sharing. The IADS Developer Hackathon, org

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has suspended Mr Joey Lo Wai Hon, a former responsible officer (RO) of MTF Securities Limited (MTF), for four months from 30 September 2025 to 29 January 2026 for failing to properly manage credit risks and to identify and report suspicious trading patterns of clients (Notes 1 and 2). The disciplinary action follows the SFC’s findings that MTF failed to maintain effective policies and procedures to ensure the proper management of cr