Appeals Tribunal upholds SFC decision to fine I-Access
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined I-Access Investors Limited $600,000 for breach of the Code of Conduct after the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) upheld the SFC’s disciplinary action against it.
The SFC’s disciplinary action arose from I-Access’s response to an internal system test conducted by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) on 6 April 2015. The system test resulted in test data in the form of simulated orders, trade and securities prices being transmitted to clients of HKEX’s market data system, including I-Access.
The SFC found that I-Access in turn disseminated such data in its own system when they should have been disregarded.
This resulted in the incorrect triggering of 27 stop loss sell orders by 12 clients and their executions on the following trading day. I-Access, however, did not take the initiative to promptly notify the affected clients of the incident and make appropriate compensation offers to them.
The regulator found that I-Access was in breach of the Code of Conduct by failing to act with due skill, care and diligence, and in the best interests of its clients.
In deciding the disciplinary sanction, the SFC took into account a variety of factors, including that this appears to be an isolated incident. The regulator also noted that I-Access has changed the programme design of its system since the incident to avoid recurrence of similar incident. The firm has an otherwise clean disciplinary record.