Taiwan: Cathay Financial Units Fined for Connectivity Issues

Cathay Securities and Cathay Futures failed to perform capacity tests and application system stress testing operations, the FSC said. 

Taiwan’s FSC (Financial Supervisory Commission) has issued warnings and fines totalling TWD 2.1 million (USD 65,000) against Cathay Securities and Cathay Futures for connectivity issues that affected their online services.

The apps of Cathay Securities and Cathay Futures both experienced connectivity problems on 5 July, preventing users from placing orders. About 200 customer complaints were received that day. Less than a week later, Cathay Securities experienced a second issue with its app.

The FSC’s Securities and Futures Bureau as well as the TWSE (Taiwan Stock Exchange) together investigated the incidents and determined the punishment on Thursday (31 August), citing problems with Cathay’s internal control systems.

The problems identified included failure to perform capacity tests and application system stress testing operations, failure to establish standard operating procedures for system recovery, and insufficient resource allocation to the database host server, among other issues.

Cathay Securities was fined TWD 1.5 million while Cathay Futures was fined TWD 600,000. Both firms have since reviewed their systems, made improvements to enhance performance and resilience, and pledged to provide customers with better services in the future.