On August 27, 2025, Lawyers Wang Yang and Ma Lin, partners of Shanghai Hongqiao Zhenghan Law Firm, were invited by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Shanghai Branch to deliver a special lecture titled *Prevention and Response to Litigation Risks for Banks* for the persons in charge of litigation cases from 29 sub-branches under its jurisdiction. Focusing closely on the practical pain points of banking operations, the two lawyers elaborated on four core modules: “Performance of Appropriateness Obligations”, “Determination of Liability for Bank Card Fraudulent Transactions”, “Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Operations”, and “Prevention and Control of Employee Unauthorized Sales Risks”, covering the key links most likely to trigger litigation in the daily operation of banks.
In the module on appropriateness obligations, Lawyer Wang Yang, in combination with the *Nine-Minute Meeting Minutes* and bank litigation cases over the past five years, dissected the practical key points of the four obligations: “know your customer, know your product, appropriate matching, and disclosure and explanation”. He emphasized that risk assessment requires “substantive review rather than formal collection”, product due diligence must be conducted prudently with independent risk rating, and the obligation of disclosure and explanation needs to be “a combination of subjective and objective aspects”, with enhanced risk reminders for special groups such as elderly investors and low-risk appetite clients. Meanwhile, through typical cases, he analyzed and interpreted the adjudication rules under which banks bear compensation liability for misleading sales, over-risk recommendation without evidence. In the module on employee unauthorized sales, Lawyer Wang Yang sorted out common scenarios of employee unauthorized sales and reminded banks to strengthen the management of outlet personnel and standardize sales processes.
Regarding bank card fraudulent transactions, a high-frequency dispute, Lawyer Ma Lin, in combination with the *Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Civil Dispute Cases Involving Bank Cards* and practical cases, analyzed the bank’s security guarantee obligation for preventing fraudulent transactions, clarified how to focus on prevention and guide cardholders to retain evidence in different situations of counterfeit card fraud and online fraud when involved in litigation, and constructed a full-process response plan covering pre-warning, in-process loss stop, and post-litigation evidence presentation. In the anti-money laundering compliance module, Lawyer Ma Lin, in light of the latest regulatory developments and cutting-edge regulatory requirements, interpreted for banks how to balance regulatory requirements and avoid litigation risks under high-standard anti-money laundering mandates.
This training focused on high-frequency litigation scenarios of banks, integrating judicial cases and new regulatory rules, and built a full-process capability framework of “risk identification – compliance prevention – dispute response” for participants, winning unanimous praise at the venue.
Hongqiao Zhenghan specializes in complex dispute resolution, and has long acted in a large number of complex and difficult commercial cases, cross-border dispute resolution cases, as well as market-oriented asset and debt restructuring cases including bankruptcy. It provides professional dispute resolution services for large financial institutions, listed companies, governments and well-known enterprises. It has been consecutively awarded as National Excellent Law Firm, Shanghai Top Ten Law Firms, and Tier 1 in Corporate and Commercial Law by Chambers; it has also won awards such as Excellent Law Firm in Domestic/Cross-Border Dispute Resolution and Banking & Finance by China Business Law Journal. Adopting the LockStep partnership model, Hongqiao Zhenghan has built the entire firm into an integrated management lawyer team with clear professional division of labor to meet and exceed customer service needs.