IFAA News and Updates

SEMINAR

Regulatory Issues Faced by IFAs

On 22 September 2006, the IFAA hosted a seminar addressing regulatory issues faced by IFAs.

This was a two hour seminar presented by Christine Koo, the Honorary Legal Advisor of IFAA and Principal Partner of Christine Koo and Ip, Solicitors & Notaries.

To set the scene Christine briefly covered a wide spectrum of areas including the Regulated Activities, Regulated Persons, Licensed Representatives, Responsible Officers, General Principles of the Code of Conduct, Persons to Which the Code Applies, Effect of the Breach of the Code, Fit and Proper concept, Power of the SFC to Take Disciplinary Action and finally the Principles of Regulation Taken by the SFC.

Estimating that the time frame would allow the analysis of ten actual Hong Kong cases Christine then launched into the first case study.

At the end of the two hours, to the credit of the preparation of Christine and the intense interest of the audience, it was found that only five of the ten cases had been covered.

The five cases covered poor diligence, breach of code – conflict of interest, breach of code – diligence and capabilities and information about Clients, and capabilities of the financial advisor.

Of particular interest was the ability of the guilty parties to negotiate with the SFC an increased monetary penalty leading to a reduced (license) suspension period.

Click here to view photos from the seminar.