The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong has banned Ms Chau Hang Yu and Mr Steve Chow Chun Yin, who both worked at HSBC, from re-entering the industry for life.

Both have received criminal convictions and this seems to have been the last straw for the regulator. The District Court found that Chau and Chow, both of whom were responsible for selling and promoting investment products at HSBC and knew who knew one another at the time of their wrongdoing, made false claims in 2012 and 2014 that certain HSBC customers had agreed to subscribe for unit trust funds. They received sales commission after HSBC processed the subscription orders in the belief that they had sold the funds to the customers when in fact this was not the case.

On 23 February, Chau was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment after her conviction for two counts of fraud under the Theft Ordinance.  Chow was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment after his conviction for two counts of fraud under the Theft Ordinance and one count of offering an advantage to an agent under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

The District Court also found that Chau referred her customers to Chow so that he could obtain more sales commission after she had reached the cap for receiving sales commission. Chau later asked Chow for customer referral fees, giving her $100,000.

The SFC considers Chau and Chow are not fit and proper persons to be licensed or registered to carry out regulated activities as a result of their convictions.

Both people were relevant individuals engaged by HSBC to carry out type 1 (dealing in securities) and type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance.