ING Groep agreed to pay US$8.8 million to the Taiwan Labor Pension Fund, Taipei, to compensate for investment losses allegedly related to irregular trading activities.
ING will pay the full amount sought by Taiwan partly for the sake of continuing to develop its business on the island, ING said in a statement Monday. Rosemary Wang, a Financial Supervision Commission official, said the regulator sent a warning to ING and asked it to fire the employee involved in the trading after an investigation.
“The company values its customers and business in Taiwan and is taking this action as a gesture of goodwill, to protect the interests of the company,” said Victorina De Boer, a spokeswoman for ING. “There was no legal obligation to compensate clients.”
ING had previously rejected the compensation demands, saying the losses related to the employee’s activities to the US$67 billion pension fund were limited. The employee’s contract has been terminated, Ms. De Boer said.
Taiwan’s securities market regulator has concluded its investigation of ING, the FSC’s Ms. Wang said. She declined to comment on whether prosecutors are pursuing the matter.
The Council of Labor Affairs said on Oct. 31 that ING would be banned from investing on behalf of the government for five years.
