HK relationship manager banned over misconduct

Hong Kong’s securities regulator has banned a former relationship manager from CIC Investor Services from re-entering the industry for two years over misconduct.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) took the action against Selina Tsang Siu Kam, who was accredited to CIC Investor Services between July 2003 and April 2011.

The regulator found that between 2006 and 2008, Tsang took order instructions from a third party without written authorisation from a client, and carried out trades for the client without their knowledge.

In a posting on its website, the SFC suggested Tsang’s actions seriously called into question her fitness and properness to be a licensed person.

In determining the penalty, it took into account that her conduct was not isolated and had taken place over a number of years.

The SFC also stressed that trading in a client account without their knowledge was a dishonest act, and that acting in the interests of clients is fundamental to the fitness and properness of a licensed representative. It noted, too, that the affected client had accepted compensation for Tsang’s misconduct.

It opted to ban Tsang from re-entering the industry for two years, from March 26, 2013, to March 25, 2015. She had been licensed to carry on type 1 (dealing in securities) and type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activities.

Tsang is not currently a licensed person.