The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission announced yesterday it had suspended two individuals.

In the first case The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Ms Laura Kiang Mang Yi from re-entering the industry for three years from 13 July 2015 to 12 July 2018.

Kiang joined Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd (BJB) in July 2013 and represented to her employer that she had obtained a master’s degree from New York University (NYU) in 2008. In fact, she had only studied at the University but did not complete all the requirements to be awarded a master degree.

When asked to provide evidence to support her academic qualification Kiang obtained a fake diploma purporting to have been issued by NYU and submitted it to BJB.

Kiang knowingly made a false representation to her former employer about her academic qualification and her misconduct was aggravated by the manufacture of the fake diploma.

The SFC considered Kiang’s conduct called into question her fitness and properness to be a regulated person.

In the second case the SFC has suspended Ms Tai Nga Chun for eight months from 10 July 2015 to 9 March 2016.

The disciplinary action follows an SFC investigation which found that from January to June 2013, Tai operated a secret account and conducted 85 personal trading activities through the account, in breach of her employer’s internal control policies.

The SFC considers Tai’s conduct was dishonest and made it impossible for her employer to identify and monitor her trading activities, without which licensed corporations would not be able to detect potential malpractices arising from staff trading.

The SFC has looked into the trading in Tai’s account and found no sign of any other misconduct. The SFC reduced the period of suspension taking into account that Tai has expressed remorse for her misconduct.

Licensed persons are required to follow the employee dealing procedures implemented by their employers in accordance with the Code of Conduct, because such controls are not purely internal to their employers but constitute an integral part of the regulatory system, as they seek to ensure integrity in the manner in which employees conduct personal trading.