SFC pledges more aggressive enforcement action
More than a dozen companies are under investigation for infractions relating to their duties as listing sponsors, according to the SFC’s executive director of enforcement Tom Atkinson
The Securities and Futures Commission is investigating 15 financial firms for failing in their duties as listing sponsors, according to executive director of enforcement Tom Atkinson on Wednesday.
“There is a relationship between the failure of duty of listing sponsors and corporate fraud,” Atkinson said in a speech to a regulatory summit in Hong Kong.
Of the 136 corporate frauds being investigated by the commission currently, 28 cases have been prioritised as very serious, he said.
Most cases are related to inflated the revenue or transaction value of the companies at the time they applied to list.
“When these IPO sponsors failed in their duties to check on the accuracy of the information of the listing candidates, it led to corporate fraud,” Atkinson said.
“Cracking down on corporate fraud and failed IPO sponsors will continue to be the focus of the enforcement of the SFC to safeguard the reputation of the Hong Kong market.”
