Taiwan FSC Flags Serious Underground Remittance Problem Among Vietnamese Migrant Workers

Vietnamese migrant workers use illegal channels to send wages home more extensively than workers of other nationalities, drawn by Vietnam’s foreign-exchange controls and favorable rates offered by underground operators. Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission Banking Bureau said such transactions fall outside financial oversight, disrupting the legal remittance market and creating risks including fraud, money laundering and funds that are difficult to trace.

The Banking Bureau recently said it would ask the Ministry of Labor to step up efforts to inform migrant workers in Taiwan about legal small-value remittance channels. It will also ask law enforcement agencies to intensify crackdowns on illegal underground remittances, focusing on the Vietnamese migrant-worker market, where the problem is more serious. The FSC did not disclose the number of cases uncovered, the amounts involved, specific outreach dates or an enforcement timetable.