Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has barred former HSBC relationship manager Chen Chia-hui from re-entering the financial services industry, after she was sentenced to an 18-month jail term for bribery last month.
“The SFC considers Chen is not a fit and proper person to be licensed or registered to carry on regulated activities as a result of her conviction,” the regulator said in a statement yesterday.
The District Court had found that Chen accepted a secret HK$500,000 ($64,460, £50,610, €54,477) commission on 9 February 2013 for recommending and selling to a HSBC customer an insurance policy issued by a competitor.
According to the court’s judgement, she had helped out a friend who was working at Axa by selling a $2m insurance policy a client, and without disclosing that it was not a HSBC product. This was considered detrimental to the bank’s interests.
At that time, Chen had already met her sales target at HSBC and was receiving a monthly salary of HK$73,333.
“The SFC considers Chen is not a fit and proper person to be licensed or registered to carry on regulated activities as a result of her conviction,” concluded the statement.
