The first financial penalties for failing to comply with New Zealand's anti-money laundering laws have been imposed on an Auckland-based remittance service and foreign currency provider. Ping An Finance has been fined NZ$2.9 million for "serious and systemic deficiencies" under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CMT Act) which came into force in 2013. The Crown said Ping An Finance and its director Xiaolan Xiao "failed abysmally" to comply with the Act and file any suspicious transaction reports regarding over 1,500 transactions totalling NZ$105.4 million. The transactions - which should have triggered reports under the law - included very large transactions, significant high-value cash deposits, and unnecessary use of numerous transactions to pay or receive funds from a single customer on one day.