SEC suspends 2 KBank investment consultants
The SEC has suspended approval for two securities investment consultants of Kasikornbank PCL for failure to responsibly perform their duties with professional due care for the best interest of investors.
Suspended are Siriwan Sukata and Suparat Nissapha.
According to a report from KBank and the SEC’s further inspection, Siriwan was found to have signed on a unit subscription order for a client without contacting or giving advice to the client. She admitted having done so without providing details on the fund to the client. The SEC therefore imposed a 40-day suspension on Siriwan, effective from November 1, 2017.
Suparat committed similar acts by signing on the subscription order of a client without contacting or giving advice to the client. Instead, another KBank employee, who was not an approved investment consultant, gave advice to the client in such a way that it caused the client to misunderstand that the investment was a deposit transaction because the return rate and the investment term were written on the cover of the client’s fund book.
The SEC has therefore suspended approval for Suparat as a securities investment consultant for a period of two years, starting from February 1, 2018. In addition, since Suparat is also a bank branch manager, she is prohibited from functioning as a branch manager responsible for capital market business of any bank or intermediary during the same suspension period.
The SEC said KBank cooperated with the inspection of these cases. Since the incidents, KBank has specified that only approved investment consultants are allowed to contact and give investment advice to clients.
The SEC has emphasised to all intermediaries to strictly instruct their investment consultants to obtain and compile sufficient information for client due diligence before giving advice on suitable funds for their investment, along with supporting reasons. Required information includes client’s investment objectives, personal conditions and risk tolerance.
In addition, clients should be given more than one choice of fund, and intermediaries should follow up on clients’ investments on a regular basis and keep clients informed of changes for the benefit of clients.
