Deutsche Bank Fined by SFC for Overcharging Clients and More
Hong Kong’s securities regulator has fined Deutsche Bank for overcharging fees and other violations.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Deutsche Bank HK$23.8 million ($3.1 million) for various breaches, according to a statement.
This includes overcharging clients HK$39 million as a result of failing to apply discounted management fees in discretionary mandate accounts, incorrectly valuing floating rate debt instruments by applying fixed interest rates and misstating the valuations of private equity and real estate funds. The German lender also failed to disclose its investment banking relationships with Hong Kong-listed companies in research reports and incorrectly assigned a lower product risk rating to exchange-traded funds.
In deciding the penalty, the regulator also considered that Deutsche Bank had reviewed the self-reported issue, remediated it and refunded the overcharged fees to affected clients.
