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Asiaciti Trust would like to comment on the recent media surrounding the “Pandora Papers”. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners have published a series of coordinated stories that seek to negatively characterize our industry, company and clients. These “Pandora Paper” articles are based on incomplete and sometimes erroneous information, including some confidential information that was illegally obtained from Asiaciti Trust as part of a global attack on industry service providers.
Asiaciti Trust provides fiduciary services to clients around the world. Our work is subject to stringent law and regulation by the relevant authorities in each jurisdiction in which we operate. We are committed to the highest business standards, including ensuring that our operations fully comply with all laws and regulations.
We maintain a strong compliance program and each of our offices have passed third party audits for Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Financing of Terrorism practices in recent years, which reflects our intense focus on this area. No compliance program is infallible – and when an issue is identified, we take necessary steps with regard to the client engagement and make the appropriate notifications to regulatory agencies.
The regulatory and industry landscape has evolved over the course of our 45-year history, and we have worked diligently to comply with prevailing regulations through this passage of time. Compliance is core to our business and we have adapted our company to meet the changing requirements. Any organisation operating over such a length of time is likely to have legacy matters that do not reflect the current business. We recognize there have been isolated instances in the past where we have not kept pace, and in these situations we have worked closely with regulatory authorities to address any deficiencies and quickly updated our policies and procedures.
The “Pandora Papers” media coverage by the ICIJ and its partners is largely based on illegally obtained information and contains numerous inaccuracies and instances where important details are missing. In many cases the stories published do not represent all the facts or context of a situation. This has led to grossly misleading inferences and conclusions about Asiaciti Trust. We are bound by statutory confidentiality laws that restrict us from commenting on specific matters, and the ICIJ and its partners have been informed of this fact. In our view, it is clear that they have chosen to portray information in a way that suits a particular narrative.
Data security is extremely important to us and we have invested heavily in our systems over the past several years. Upon learning that the ICIJ and its partners had illegally obtained our confidential information from an historic period in time, we immediately began an investigation into our systems, including retaining a specialist forensic IT consultant. Two separate rounds of system penetration testing across our current network infrastructure has been completed without adverse finding.
Asiaciti Trust remains committed to our industry and clients. We will continue to provide the excellence in client service, responsiveness, and independence that we are known for.
