The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced that it has fined FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) Limited (FIMHK) HK$3.5 million for regulatory breaches including unlicensed dealing in futures contracts, delay in reporting the breach to the SFC as well as submitting incorrect information during an application.
According to the regulator, the company executed 6,738 trades in futures contracts for its overseas affiliates with an approximate value of US$40 billion without the required licence. FIMHK identified the suspected breach in a review conducted between May and June 2018 but only reported the incident to the SFC in August 2018, after it had obtained external legal advice.
FIMHK has also submitted an incorrect information checklist based on an outdated template. As a result, certain required information was not completed or provided in the checklist submitted to the SFC.
The SFC took into account that:
- there is no evidence to suggest that FIMHK’s failures were intentional or deliberate;
- there is no evidence of clients having suffered any financial loss;
- FIMHK engaged an independent reviewer to review its internal controls in relation to the fund application process and took steps to rectify the deficiencies identified;
- FIMHK took remedial actions to strengthen its internal systems and controls;
- FIMHK co-operated with the SFC in resolving the SFC’s concerns; and
- FIMHK has an otherwise clean disciplinary record with the SFC.