A couple of years ago the Banking Ordinance was amended to empowered HKMA to disclose details of disciplinary action taken against securities staff of banks. But in many cases disciplinary action was not taken because the concerned individuals had left the banking industry. This week HKMA issued the first press release (in a similar style to SFC's) about its enforcement action against a relevant individual.
HKMA has suspended all the particulars of Ms Chu Lai Kwan, a relevant individual employed by Hang Seng Bank, from the register maintained by the HKMA under S.20 of Banking Ordinance for one month from 5 Jun 2007 to 4 Jul 2007 for her concealment of her securities trading from her employer.
It was found that Chu conducted joint securities trading with her colleague through the accounts of a client and another colleague with her employer during the period from 2 April 2003 to 30 April 2004. She failed to declare her beneficial interests in these two accounts in accordance with the requirements of the staff dealing policy of her employer. She therefore breached SFC's Code of Conduct and was guilty of dishonesty and misconduct.
HKMA also disclosed that Ms Chu took the initiative to report her concealed securities trading activities to the Internal Audit (not Compliance?) of her employer during its investigation of a complaint (about what?).
I expect HKMA will announce more enforcement actions against relevant individuals in future. Although over the past years some securities staff of banks attempted to avoid HKMA's disciplinary action by jumping from banking industry to securities industry, HKMA could share their "bad records" with SFC.
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