Hong Kong Securities And Futures Commission Bans Pang Hon Pan For 21 months

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Mr Pang Hon Pan, a former private banking relationship manager of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (SCBHK) and a former senior relationship manager of Bank of Singapore Limited (BOS), for 21 months from 25 November 2020 to 24 August 2022 (Note 1).

The SFC’s disciplinary action follows a referral by the HKMA.  The HKMA found in its investigation stemming from a self-reporting by SCBHK that Pang breached SCBHK’s internal policies from 17 April 2010 to 31 March 2017 by:

• failing to disclose to his then employer SCBHK the existence of his personal securities accounts maintained with three external financial institutions;
• conducting a total of 48 securities transactions through these accounts without seeking pre-clearance from SCBHK, or reporting them to SCBHK post-execution; and
• falsely declaring to SCBHK on seven occasions that he had no existing securities account.

The HKMA issued a decision in November 2019 to impose a 15-month suspension against Pang for the above misconduct.  Pang in turn applied to the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) for a review of the HKMA’s decision in December 2019 (Note 2). 

On 12 February 2020, Pang asked the SFAT to postpone a hearing scheduled for 17 February 2020 because he was in the midst of a 14-day home quarantine following a business trip to Mainland China on 7 February 2020.  The SFAT agreed to Pang’s request for postponement and adjourned the hearing.

Upon the HKMA’s verification with Pang’s then employer BOS, it turned out that Pang went to Mainland China on 7 February 2020 on a personal trip instead of a business trip as he had told the SFAT, and he did not undergo self-quarantine at home afterwards.

Pang subsequently withdrew the review application, and the SFAT granted leave for Pang to discontinue the review proceedings, while commenting that his review application was wholly without merit, on 14 May 2020 (Note 3).

Pang ceased to be registered as a relevant individual with the HKMA from 17 March 2020 following his dismissal by BOS.  As the statutory power to discipline a former relevant individual rests with the SFC, the HKMA referred the case to the SFC to consider appropriate disciplinary action against Pang (Notes 4 & 5).

The SFC considers Pang’s conduct regarding his personal securities accounts and wilful misrepresentation to the SFAT dishonest and call into question his character, reliability and his ability to carry on regulated activities competently and honestly.

In deciding the sanction, the SFC took into account all relevant circumstances, including the duration of Pang’s conduct and his otherwise clean disciplinary record.

Pang, who had applied to the SFAT for a review of the SFC’s decision, was granted leave to withdraw his application on 25 November 2020 by the SFAT and ordered to pay the SFC’s legal costs (Note 6).

Notes:

1. Pang was a relevant individual engaged by: (i) SCBHK to carry on Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) between 17 April 2010 and 31 March 2017; and (ii) BOS to carry on Type 1 regulated activity under the SFO between 18 April 2017 and 16 March 2020.  Pang is currently not registered with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) or licensed by the SFC.
2. SFAT Application No. 4/2019.
3. Please refer to the SFAT’s Determination, which is available on its website at https://www.sfat.gov.hk/.
4. BOS summarily dismissed Pang on 16 March 2020.
5. As Pang was no longer registered as a relevant individual with the HKMA as of 17 March 2020, the HKMA’s power to discipline Pang under section 58A of the Banking Ordinance lapsed before the HKMA’s decision against him could come into effect.
6. Please see SFAT Application No. 6/2020 published on the SFAT’s website at https://www.sfat.gov.hk/.