Compliance & Regulation

MAS bans Three Insurance Agents and Banker

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has banned one former banker and three former insurance agents who were found guilty of defrauding clients out of USD438,000, with the regulator having issued prohibition orders.

Edwin Teh Chin Hong and Joseph Michael, both of whom are former Great Eastern Life Assurance agents, face nine and five-year bans respectively. Lim Bing Hong, a former Prudential Assurance agent, has also been banned for five years, and former UOB personal banker Ng Wei Ling faces an eight-year ban.

Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director of Policy, Payments and Financial Crime at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said of the prohibition orders that “The four individuals abused the trust that their customers placed in them, and enriched themselves at their customers’ expense.”

Teh has been charged with nearly 3 years in prison, according to a report by Finews Asia, being found guilty on several charges, including defrauding several clients out of nearly USD190,000. Michael was found guilty of defrauding over USD8,000, being sentenced to 10 weeks in prison.

Lim was found guilty of misappropriating USD5,300 out of a client, presenting himself as a Prudential agent even following the lapsing of the policy, and has been sentenced to 14 weeks imprisonment.

Ng was found to have scammed seven clients out of over USD114,000. She was discovered to have been transferring clients’ funds into her own personal bank account under the guise of investing said funds into fixed deposit products or purchasing insurance policies; she has been sentenced to 20 months in prison as a consequence.