Hong Kong regulator fines UBS $51 million for overcharging clients

Hong Kong regulator fines UBS $51 million for overcharging clients

Swiss Bank UBS was fined HK$400 million ($51.09 million) by Hong Kong’s securities regulator for overcharging around 5,000 clients for the past decade.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said in a statement that an investigation revealed that UBS had been overcharging clients on ‘post-trade spread increases’ which occurred in the bank’s wealth management division on bond and structured notes transactions.

UBS was found to have increased the spread charged after the execution of a trade without the clients’ knowledge, it said.

According to the SFC, around 5,000 Hong Kong-managed client accounts were affected in 28,700 transactions.

It has been agreed that UBS will repay its clients HK$200 million, the SFC said.

The issue was said to have been ‘self-reported’ to the SFC and the results found proved to be against UBS’ standard practice.