“Although each overcharge represented a fraction of each trade, UBS’ misconduct involved deception and a pervasive abuse of trust resulting in significant additional revenue for UBS to which it was not entitled,” SFC chief executive Ashley Alder said in a statement. Officials said that UBS was found to have falsified account statements by misreporting the spread amounts for the trades. The overcharge practices affected about 5,000 Hong Kong-managed client accounts in about 28,700 transactions, it added. UBS was fined HK$400 million (US$51 million) and the SFC said the bank would repay the full value of the overcharged amount together with interest, which would amount to about HK$200 million. The bank was among a number of lenders that were told in March to pay a combined HK$787 to settle cases linked to their work on initial public offerings in the territory.

Source: Taipei Times November 12, 2019 16:04 UTC