Monday, February 13, 2006

Bank of China Vows Tight Control after Scandal


Bank of China, planning an $8 billion share sale, said on Monday it had learned from its mistakes and would tighten internal controls, after former staff were charged in the United States with a scheme to defraud the bank of nearly half a billion dollars over 13 years.

The lender, one of China's four big state-owned banks, said it would strengthen its internal risk controls ahead of its initial public offering, now expected to be delayed to the second half of this year.

A U.S. federal grand jury on January 31 charged Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, former branch managers at the state bank, and their wives with 15 counts of money laundering, racketeering and fraud over a 13-year scheme to defraud the bank of $485 million.

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