Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Ma Yu Lung, a former representative of Sun Hung Kai Investment Services Limited (SHKIS), from re-entering the industry for eight years, effective from today, for various breaches of its Code of Conduct.

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The SFC’s investigation found that on numerous occasions between September 2009 and February 2010, Ma accepted order instructions from unknown and unauthorised individuals to trade securities listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, and colluded with SHKIS’ account holders to pretend the order instructions originated from them when this was not the case.

Ma Yu Lung concealed the identities of those individuals who originally gave the relevant order instructions.

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In addition, Ma allowed execution of trades flowing from these order instructions in the securities trading accounts of others at SHKIS and concealed the identities of those individuals who originally gave the relevant order instructions.

According to the SFC, Ma’s conduct was dishonest and cast serious doubts on his fitness to be a licensed person. As a SFC-licensed representative, he should be satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that the identity of the person ultimately responsible for originating the instruction was legitimate. He should not carry out a transaction unless the person originating the order is authorised.

In deciding the sanction, the SFC took into account all relevant circumstances, including the seriousness of Ma’s misconduct, and concluded that a strong deterrent message was necessary.