Compliance & Regulation

Hong Kong regulator fines UBS for trading control failures

This sanction comes two weeks after the regulator blocked UBS from sponsoring IPOs in Hong Kong for 18 months.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined UBS Securities Asia Limited (UBS Securities) HKD4.5 million ($573,526) for trading control failures. 

In a March 22 statement, the SFC said that UBS failed to "to put in place effective controls to record transactions and client consents in relation to its facilitation trading activities."

According to the SFC, in the course of an inspection in 2016 and a subsequent investigation, UBS Securities failed to provide the regulator with complete information on its client facilitation trades. 

"In particular, UBS Securities was only able to locate client consent records for about half of the client facilitation trades it conducted between June 2015 and June 2016," the statement said.

The SFC noted that UBS Securities is under a regulatory duty to execute its business activities in line with local laws and to maintain sufficient records to explain its client facilitation business.

The SFC, however, noted that UBS cooperated with the regulator and had pledged to ensure that adequate records are maintained and kept going forward.

This sanction by the SFC comes two weeks after the regulator blocked UBS from sponsoring IPOs in Hong Kong for 18 months, a decision the Swiss bank has said that it is appealing.