HK regulator bans former VP of HSBC for life
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Mr Leung Siu Lun, a former vice president of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), from re-entering the industry for life following his convictions for bribery.
The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court found that, between 2014 and 2016, Leung, who was responsible for handling commercial banking matters for HSBC’s corporate customers, had accepted a number of gifts and advantages from a business client. They were inducements or rewards for Leung’s handling of the credit facilities applications and/or the maintenance of the credit facilities of the two companies controlled by the business client.
Since August 2013, the two companies had received credit facilities totalling around $48 million from HSBC.
The SFC considers that Leung is not a fit and proper person to be licensed or registered to carry on regulated activities as a result of his criminal convictions.
On 14 September 2018, Leung was convicted by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court of two counts of agent accepting an advantage contrary to sections 9(1)(a) and 12(1) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), and two counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the POBO and section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance. He was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment on 5 October 2018.
Leung’s appeal against his convictions was dismissed by the Court of First Instance in July 2019, and his subsequent application for leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal was refused in October 2019.