Hong Kong has banned Richard Charles Heyes, Citigroup’s former head of pan-Asia equities, from re-entering the financial industry for five years after finding him liable for regulatory breaches, Reuters reports.
The jurisdiction’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said the case stems from misconduct by Citigroup Global Markets Asia (CGMAL), which in 2022 was fined HK$348.3 million ($44.76 million) for sending misleading client messages, misrepresenting trades, and weak oversight between 2008 and 2018.
Christopher Wilson, the SFC’s executive director of enforcement, said Heyes pressured trading desks to expand market share while ignoring warning signs that subordinates were using dishonest methods, the news agency reported.
Emails addressed to Heyes showed traders were misrepresenting facilitation trades as agency trades to boost business, the regulator said. This failure, Wilson added, allowed “a culture of chasing revenue at the expense of client interests and basic standards of honesty” to take hold.
Heyes is prohibited from working in the industry until September 2030. Citigroup declined to comment on the ban but told Reuters it had implemented “significant remedial measures” since 2019 to strengthen compliance and internal controls.
Read more at Reuters