The SFC said it found that between February and April 2022 "Wu concealed from DA his beneficial interest in and that he had direct control or influence over a securities margin account held by a third party at DA. He also failed to obtain DA’s approval for the securities transactions conducted by him in the account."
"By doing so, Wu’s conduct circumvented DA’s employee dealing policy and prevented it from monitoring his personal trading activities. In all, the unauthorised transactions conducted in the account at the material time totalled HK$7.3 million."
Wu made 33 unauthorised adjustments to the margin loan limit of the account and the margin financing ratios of certain callable bull/bear contracts (CBBCs) traded in the account.
"As a result, he was able to trade more CBBCs in the account and conceal the unauthorised adjustments from DA’s detection."
At the time, Wu was the MIC for key business line, operational control and review and risk management of DA.
The SFC has concluded that the conduct "calls into question his fitness and properness to be a licensed person".
Regarding the sanction, the SFC noted:
- his misconduct lasted for over a month involving 190 transactions;
- his admission in relation to his concealment of the trading activities and the unauthorised adjustments that he made in the account;
- a deterrent message needs to be sent to the market that the SFC does not tolerate deliberate circumvention of internal control policies by licensed individuals; and
- his otherwise clean disciplinary record.
DA International Financial Services Limited is listed on the provider directory of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), where it notes "By 2015, DA International ranked No. 1 in trading volume among CME brokers in the Asia Pacific region".
DA's own website flags up links to other exchanges such as SGX, HKEX, JPX and EUREX.
