SFC permanently bans former specialist for insurance fraud

Chan was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment on 2 February 2024.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has permanently banned Chan Ka Him, a former insurance specialist at Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (SCB), from re-entering the financial industry due to his criminal convictions for insurance fraud.

Chan was sentenced by Hong Kong’s District Court to 20 months’ imprisonment on 2 February 2024 after being found guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of attempted fraud.

During his tenure at SCB’s Wan Chai branch, where his duties included promoting insurance products from external insurers to clients, Chan engaged in fraudulent activities between January and September 2019. He facilitated the purchase of insurance policies for two clients and later misled them into transferring funds to a bank account linked to him under the guise of paying insurance premiums. 

One client transferred $52,300, whilst the other transferred over $54,014. Chan then falsely represented to the insurer that the clients wished to cancel their policies.

The SFC determined that Chan's criminal actions rendered him unfit to continue as a regulated person within the industry, justifying the lifetime ban.