Hong Kong regulator fines UBS for overcharging clients

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has fined UBS AG (UBS) HK$400 million (US$51.11 million) for overcharging its clients over a decade and for related serious systemic internal control failures.

The SFC said on Monday that between 2008 and 2015, the client advisers and client advisers' assistants in UBS's Wealth Management division had overcharged clients when conducting bond and structured note trades by increasing the spread charged after the execution of trades without clients' knowledge.

Between 2008 and 2017, UBS had also charged its clients fees in excess of its standard disclosures or rates, the regulator added.

The overcharge practices affected about 5,000 Hong Kong-managed client accounts in about 28,700 transactions.

UBS also failed to report its spread overcharge practices to the SFC until two years after the identification of the misconduct, the SFC said, adding that the bank has undertaken to repay approximately HK$200 million to the affected clients.