Wealth Management
SFC Fines Private Bank HK$400 million – Issues & Implications
Overview
HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA fined HK$400 million for systemic failures in selling structured products.
The judgement handed down by the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) on 21 November 2017 resulted in an HK$400 million fine and a one-year suspension of Type 4 license and one-year partial suspension of Type 1 license.
The case raised interesting issues of “hindsight” of the Lehman problems, commonality of industry practice, improving process of the bank, “contract out” of regulatory obligations and most importantly the SFAT’s interpretation of s196(2) confirming that SFC can multiply the fine for each systemic failure by the number of legitimate complaints.
Our speaker, Prof Anna Wong, will discuss some of SFAT's reasoning on the identified issues and implications to intermediaries.
Speaker/Course Instructor
Professor Wong teaches compliance and financial regulations in the Master of Law programme at the Faculty of Law and in the Bachelor of Finance programme at the Faculty of Business and Economics. Before she took up an academic role, Professor Wong was the Head of Private Banking, Greater China at Credit Suisse. Professor Wong has extensive experience in the financial sector covering private bank, corporate bank, securities and risk management. She had served as the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Officer and Responsible Officer of various financial institutions. Professor Wong holds a Master of Business Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Juris Doctor at the University of Hong Kong.