HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Wednesday imposed a penalty of HK$4.5 million ($573,526) on UBS Group AG's (S:UBSG) securities unit in Asia for failure to put in place "effective controls" for some client trading activities.
During an investigation in 2016, the SFC said UBS Securities Asia failed to provide the watchdog with complete information on its "client facilitation trade", and it was not able to locate the entire client consent records.
The regulator, however, said in the statement that UBS cooperated to resolve its concerns and the board of UBS Securities Asia pledged to ensure that adequate records were maintained and kept.
A spokesman for UBS in Hong Kong declined to comment.
The latest SFC action comes nearly two weeks after UBS said the Hong Kong regulator had blocked it from sponsoring IPOs for 18 months. The suspension, which the Swiss bank is appealing, is not effective until its appeal has been ruled upon.
The Swiss bank has not specified what led to the suspension and the fine but said the SFC had been investigating its role as a sponsor of some IPOs listed on the Hong Kong exchange.
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