Hong Kong's financial regulator has banned a relationship manager after he was found to have misappropriated corporate information.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong has banned Fok Chi Kin from re-entering the industry for a period of eight months from 20 June 2017 to 19 February 2018.

Fok was a vice president of J.P. Morgan Funds (Asia) (JPFL) providing sales support before he tendered his resignation on 8 March 2016. He left JPFL on 10 April 2016 and joined BNP Paribas Investment Partners Asia (BNP) as a client relationship manager the following day. 

Client Data Breach

An internal investigation by JPFL revealed Fok transferred proprietary information and client data of JPFL without permission on several occasions prior to and immediately after his departure from the firm.

Specifically he was found to have sent a sales presentation regarding a JPFL product from his JPFL email to his personal email 10 days before he tendered his resignation, and then forwarded it within the same day to a former colleague, whose employer was not a client of JPFL.

Sensitive Client Information

He sent a client list from his JPFL email account to his personal email account about two and a half weeks before his last working day at JPFL. The client list contained personal data of approximately 2000 «gatekeepers and relationship managers» associated with over 80 intermediaries and distributors of JPFL’s products.

Fok then forwarded the client list to his email address at BNP on the first day of work at his new employer and saved the client list on his desktop computer at his new office.

Termination

He then used the information in the client list to call eight distributors of JPFL informing them of his change of employment.

JPFL reported the matter to the SFC and informed BNP of Fok’s conduct in May 2016. BNP terminated Fok’s employment in June 2016.

Clean Record Stained

Fok’s conduct was in breach of JPFL’s internal policies, the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and the SFC’s Code of Conduct.

In deciding the sanction, the SFC took into account all relevant circumstances, including Fok’s admission of his misconduct and his otherwise clean disciplinary record.