Top Headlines in the Last 7 Days (8th – 14th Jan 2018)

Christian Flemming had held senior leadership roles including Head of Finance at Banco BTG Pactual and Chief Operating Officer at BSI, till EFG acquisition of BSI.  Mark Bagnall, who has held the role of Chief Operating Officer at EFG since January 2011, will assume his new role as Chief Technology Officer and remain a Member of the Executive Committee. Prior to EFG, he was with Merrill Lynch from 1998 to 2008 in London and Geneva.

Separately, Peter Fischer, Head of Strategy & member of the Executive Committee,  announced his decision to step down with effect from 15th January 2018.  Learn More …

The World’s Largest Asset Manager BlackRock reported $6.28 Trillion AUM at the end of 2017, AUM grew $1.1 Trillion or 22% growth from 2016.

Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Laurence D. Fink, in his statement, reported $367 billion of total net inflows (new assets) for 2017, representing the strongest inflows in BlackRock’s history. Learn More …

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined EFG Bank HK$2 million for dealing in futures contracts without the required registration.  Between 1st April 2003 and 22th November 2016, EFG Bank executed 139 transactions in offshore listed index options for 11 clients without the required registration to deal in futures contracts.

In determining the disciplinary sanctions of HK$2 million, SFC took into account EFG Bank having initiated a review of its offshore listed index options activities and self-reported the unlicensed activities to the SFC.  The bank had also co-operated with SFC and implemented internal controls.  Learn More …

Former Standard Chartered Head of Private Banking (China), Ryan Gwee Yuan-kerr, has been charged by the ICAC (Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption) for accepting a bribe of HK$150,000 from a client for handling bank accounts held by the client and companies.  He faces one count of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.

The incident occurred when Ryan was the Head of Private Banking of SCB China.  He was responsible for leading a team and at the same time, directly manage customers and promote various banking services to them.  On 11th August 2011, he accepted HK$150,000 from a then chairman cum major shareholder of an insurance company as a reward for handling his bank account and bank accounts of the companies.

The case arose from a corruption complaint and thereafter, subsequent ICAC enquiries revealing the above alleged offence.  Learn More …