After the 1949 Revolution
After the 1949 establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, both banks' operations were split, though their management and most liquid assets were transferred to Taiwan. They were not immediately permitted to resume operations in Taiwan given the uncertain situation in the early 1950s. Both banks' assets on the mainland were seized by the Communist Party, which severely limited banking until the 1980s. The Bank of China's branches in Tokyo, Bangkok, and the Americas remained under the Taipei-based ICBC, while other branches in Asia, including Hong Kong, came under the PRC-controlled Bank of China. A new Bank of Communications was established in the PRC in 1987.[3]
During the mid to late 1990s, many state-owned financial institutions in Taiwan were restructured and merged for greater efficiency. The Chiao Tung Bank was privatized in 1999, then underwent a series of consolidations. In 2002, it was merged with the International Commercial Bank of China under a single financial holding, which in 2006 came to be consolidated into a single bank—the Mega International Commercial Bank. It was argued at the time that the bank's former initials, ICBC, could lend it to be confused with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. However, the re-branding was controversial in Taiwan as many saw the change as a costly exercise meant to remove any reference to China from its name.
In March and April 2008, Mega International Commercial Bank was featured prominently in Taiwanese news because the wife of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou, Christine Chow, had declared her intention to continue working as the bank's legal counsel. In May 2008, she was permitted to retire from the bank.
In August 2016, in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, the bank was fined $180 million for violating laws against money laundering by a New York State regulators in the US, which described its compliance program as a "hollow shell".[4] The bank entered into a consent order entered into New York's Department of Financial Services to correct admitted violations, "including engaging an independent monitor to address serious deficiencies within the bank's compliance program and implement effective anti-money laundering controls."[5] Former President Lee Tung-hui assigned blame for this malfeasance to Kuomintang officials who had run the bank for decades.[6]
