Enforcement

Misconduct findings by the Australian Royal Commission spanned the financial sector, notably singling out ASIC and APRA as lacking authority and questioning if they were up to the job of protecting customers.

EY and two of its partners were collectively fined HK$700,000 plus HK$1.5mn in legal costs for failing to properly audit the financial statements of three firms that went bust soon after being listed.

Shenzhen-listed Ruizhi Huasheng Technology, a third party developer for state-run mobile carriers, stole up to 3 billion pieces of user data from 96 companies including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu.

HPI Forex Limited transferred client money from segregated client account to two overseas brokers, breaching the Code of Conduct and the SFC’s client money rules.

Chinese police have arrested three individuals who allegedly hacked computers belonging to individuals and companies to steal 600 million yuan in bitcoin and ether.

Draft report by investigative panel says the bank’s management failed to take reasonable caution against lending malpractice involving the falsification of documents.

The ratings agency is a target of an investigation by the securities regulator for poor governance and risk management following a spate of overly optimistic ratings given to local issuers.

The bank was fined HK$5mn for ineffective procedures for continuous monitoring of business relationships and due diligence on pre-existing customers.

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority expects firms to put customer interests first; work plan to focus on conduct, culture, governance.

NAB reportedly misled ASIC about expected compensation payments for customers it charged for services not rendered; the bank also charged advice fees to more than 4000 dead customers.