SFC reprimands and fines Guoyuan Securities Brokerage (Hong Kong) Limited $4.5 million for breaches of anti-money laundering guidelines.

The SFC has reprimanded Guoyuan Securities Brokerage (Hong Kong) Limited and fined it $4.5 million for its failure to conduct proper enquiries and scrutiny to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing when processing third party fund transfers for clients between September 2010 and July 2012. The company processed a large number of frequent and unusual fund transfers, without proper enquiries and sufficient scrutiny, between Guoyuan’s clients and third parties which were unverified and unrelated to the clients.