On September 15, 2005, the US Treasury Department accused Delta Asia Bank of assisting North Korean customers in money laundering, assisting in the circulation of counterfeit money and other activities supporting terrorism, and suggested that American companies cut off any contact with the bank. Banco Delta Asia Macau (BDA) was squeezed, withdrawing 300 million patacas in just two days, accounting for one tenth of BDA's total deposits, but the bank said it had enough cash to cope. Delta Asia Bank has been trading with North Korea since 1970' s, but denies the accusation of the United States, saying that it has always had a monitoring mechanism to prevent money laundering activities. In the early morning of the next day, the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region issued a statement expressing great concern about the incident and set up a task force to investigate. That night, He Houhua, the Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, cited the legal system of the financial system on the grounds that "the customer withdrawals of Delta Asia Bank were seriously abnormal", and appointed Su Yulong, general manager of Atlantic Bank Macau Branch, and Li Zhancheng, deputy director of the internal audit office of Macao Monetary Authority, to participate in the management of Delta Asia Bank, so as to consolidate public confidence in the financial system. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority cited the Banking Ordinance which came into effect on 1995 for the first time, and announced the appointment of Paul Brough, a partner of KPMG, as the administrator to take over the services in Hong Kong and separate the assets from the parent company.

According to the BBC news report quoted by New China Australia on February 18, 2006, the lawyer representing Delta Asia Bank said on February 16, 2006 that the bank had stopped all business dealings with North Korea and improved its anti-money laundering policy. Delta Asia Bank also urged the US authorities to stop investigating the bank's alleged money laundering for the North Korean regime. On March 15, 2007, the US Treasury Department announced that it would cut off the contact between BDA and the US financial system within 30 days because it was confirmed that BDA was money laundering for North Korea. The Macao SAR Government subsequently issued a press release saying, "It will continue to take over BDA. No matter what happens, the SAR Government will take necessary measures to protect the interests of depositors and maintain the stability of the financial system.

On September 28, 2007, the two-year management period ended, and the Macao SAR government decided to return the management right of BDA to the original shareholders.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced on Friday, October 25th, 20081that the Monetary Authority, after consulting the Financial Secretary, exercised his power under section 53F( 1) of the Banking Ordinance (the Ordinance) to cancel the remittance to Mr. Paul Jeremy Brough, a KPMG accounting firm. Delta Credit Limited is a deposit-taking company recognized in Hong Kong under the Ordinance and a subsidiary of Banco Delta Asia S.A.R.L The revocation of the appointment of the manager took effect on the same day.