S’pore fines UBS $8.2m for adviser misconduct

Bloomberg

Singapore’s regulator fined UBS Group AG S$11.2 million ($8.2 million) for misconduct by its advisers that included overcharging clients for trades.
UBS’s advisers engaged in acts that deceived or were likely to deceive clients about the spreads and prices on bond and structured product transactions, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said.
“The conduct of UBS through its representatives is unacceptable and has no place in the financial services industry where trust and integrity are paramount,” MAS Deputy Managing Director Ong Chong Tee said in the statement.
The regulator’s action follows a penalty imposed on UBS in Hong Kong earlier this week for systematically overcharging private banking clients by manipulating the price on bond and structured product trades.
To hide the charges, UBS sometimes falsified account statements by misreporting the spread amounts for the trades, according to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
The Singapore penalty related to transactions executed from 2014 onwards, though UBS has undertaken to compensate all affected clients for misconduct between 2008 and 2017, the MAS said.
UBS said the latest fine resolves a matter it had self-identified and reported to regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore. It was limited to a small percentage of all transactions processed by the bank.