The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has reprimanded and fined Sino-Rich Securities & Futures Limited $2 million for failures concerning its margin lending policy and practices.

The SFC has also suspended the licence of Mr Budihardjo Wilhelm Soeharsono, a responsible officer and a manager-in-charge of Sino-Rich, for five months and two weeks from 8 May 2025 to 22 October 2025.

The SFC’s investigation found that, between 1 December 2017 and 30 September 2019, Sino-Rich failed to adequately document its margin lending policy and strictly enforce a requirement that the credit limits of its clients were set by reference to objective proof of their net income or net worth. The firm also failed to require written explanations to justify deviations from its margin lending policy.

The aforesaid failures of Sino-Rich constitute breaches of the Code of Conduct.

The regulator considers that Sino-Rich’s failures were attributable to Budihardjo’s failure to discharge his duties as a responsible officer and a member of the senior management of Sino-Rich.

In deciding the disciplinary sanctions against Sino-Rich and Budihardjo, the SFC took into account a variety of factors, including Sino-Rich’s disciplinary history. Budihardjo was separately disciplined by the SFC in 2009 for his failures to properly and actively monitor clients’ trading activities as a responsible officer and senior management of another firm.

The regulator notes that Sino-Rich has taken steps to remedy and improve its margin lending practices.