Thursday, June 16, 2022 - SFC reprimands and fines China Everbright Securities (HK) Limited $3.8 million for breaches of anti-money laundering regulatory requirements
Everbright Securities Co. Ltd. / 光大证券股份有限公司Source - https://apps.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/news-and-announcements/news/enforcement-news/doc?refNo=22PR37Where - Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
Cost - 3,800,000 HKD
Business line - Corporate Services
Copyright © Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (www.sfc.hk) 2022
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined China Everbright Securities (HK) Limited (CESL) $3.8 million for failures in complying with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regulatory requirements.
The SFC found that CESL failed to implement adequate and effective systems and controls to guard against and mitigate the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing associated with third party deposits between January 2015 and February 2017.
The SFC’s investigation, which included a sample review of deposits received by CESL during the relevant period, revealed that CESL failed to identify 178 third party deposits amounting to over $250 million made through the sub-accounts maintained by CESL with a local bank.
CESL also failed to detect suspicious fund deposits in some of the client accounts and make appropriate enquiries despite the presence of the following red flags:
• 11 clients received five or more deposits from multiple third parties, whose relationships with the clients were unknown;
• the amount of net deposits received by seven clients were not commensurate with their estimated net assets; and
• five clients, who did not appear to have any relationship with each other, received a total of approximately $5 million from the same third party within four days, and they used the funds to trade in the same stock.
The SFC is of the view that CESL’s conduct was in breach of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, the Guideline on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing and the Code of Conduct.
In deciding the disciplinary sanction, the SFC took into account that:
• a strong deterrent message needs to be sent to the market that AML/CFT failures are not acceptable;
• CESL has taken remedial actions to enhance its AML/CFT internal controls and systems; and
• CESL cooperated with the SFC in resolving the SFC’s concerns.
--- Chinese version ---
中國光大證券（香港）有限公司因違反有關打擊洗錢的監管規定而遭證監會譴責及罰款380萬元
證券及期貨事務監察委員會（證監會）譴責中國光大證券（香港）有限公司（光大證券）並處以380萬元罰款，原因是光大證券沒有遵守有關打擊洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集的監管規定。
證監會發現，光大證券在2015年1月至2017年2月期間，沒有實施充足及有效的制度和管控措施，以防範及減低與第三者存款相關的洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集風險。
證監會的調查包括對光大證券於有關期間收到的存款進行抽樣檢視，過程中發現光大證券未能識別178筆透過光大證券在某家本地銀行開立的多個子帳戶作出的第三者存款，金額超過2.5億元。
此外，儘管出現了以下預警跡象，但光大證券未能偵測某些客戶帳戶內的可疑存款，也沒有作出適當的查詢：
• 11名客戶從多名與其關係不明的第三者收到五筆或以上的存款；
• 七名客戶收到的存款淨金額與他們的估計淨資產不相稱；及
• 五名看來互不相關的客戶在四天內收到來自同一名第三者合共約500萬港元，而該五名客戶使用有關資金買賣同一隻股票。
證監會認為光大證券的行為違反了《打擊洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集條例》、《打擊洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集指引》和《操守準則》。
證監會在決定採取上述紀律處分時，已考慮到：
• 有需要向市場傳遞具阻嚇力的強烈訊息，以示有關打擊洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集的缺失不可接受；
• 光大證券採取了補救行動，以加強其打擊洗錢及恐怖分子資金籌集的內部管控措施及制度；及
• 光大證券與證監會合作解決證監會的關注事項。
