The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Chan Tan Lo, a former relationship manager at BOCI Securities, from re-entering the industry for 14 months from 19 March 2020 – 18 May 2021, according to a statement from the regulator.
An investigation by the regulator found that in 2016, Chan failed to disclose or provided inaccurate information to two clients about the final execution prices, as well as the actual commission rates charged by her in nine bond transactions.
Audio-recordings of the telephone conversations between Chan and the clients’ representative show that during the price quotation stage, Chan quoted the best available prices to the representative for the nine bond transactions. According to the clients, they agreed with Chan that the firm could charge them a commission of 0.2% of the execution price in bond transactions executed on their behalf.
However, Chan increased the mark-up without informing the clients’ representative of the increase. The clients’ commission rates were overcharged by 0.2%-0.8% in the nine bond transactions, according to the statement.
“As a licensed person, Chan was obliged to make adequate disclosure of relevant material information to her clients, and to ensure that the information provided to her clients is accurate and not misleading,” the regulator said.
“Further, despite Chan’s knowledge that the commission she ultimately charged the clients were higher than that agreed, she failed to inform the clients and/or provided misleading information to the clients about the price and/or the commission. The SFC considers her conduct to be dishonest.”
The regulator noted that Chan’s entitlement to the commission from the nine bond transactions had been forfeited by BOCI Securities.
“In deciding the sanction against Chan, the SFC took into account all relevant circumstances, including her remorse and her otherwise clean disciplinary record,” it added.
BOCI Securities is wholly-owned and managed by BOC International (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of China), offering investors products and services including sales and trading of equities and structured products, investment advisory and private wealth management, according to the firm’s website.
BOCI Securities has been licensed by the SFC to carry on dealing in securities (Type 1), dealing in futures contracts (Type 2), advising on securities (Type 4) and advising on futures contract (Type 5), the website noted.
