Scandal-Hit Jardine Grabs The Limelight

We've had some redemptions. We've also had some subscriptions, a company spoke-sman told Reuters.

The business pattern is very much as usual, the spokesman added.

Jardine Fleming retained its seat on the executive committee of the domestic industry association, the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association, despite media reports that moves were afoot to knock the company off the committee.

In election results released yesterday, Jardine Fleming continues as one of 12 member firms with a representative on the board, but the association stressed the election began in early August and ballots were collected by mail. There isn't any particular relationship (between the elections and the scandal), an association spokeswoman said.

 

Jardine Fleming did, however, earn a stinging rebuke from the group, which announced a new industry drive towards best professional practice.

It was felt that some aspects of Jardine Fleming's past practices were unacceptable to the industry's general standards of professional integrity, said Andrew Lo of INVESCO, who was reappointed chairman of the association for another year.

Regulators hit Jardine Fleming with heavy fines and revoked the licence of its London-based fund management company, along with the registration of the company's chief executive following last week's revelations of late allocation of trades by a senior fund manager.

Some of the trades involved the fund manager's personal trading account.

Lo said a new working group will work with the British colony's chief markets regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, to establish a code of practice for personal account dealing by its members.

What the HKIFA must do is to learn from this experience, said Lo, who described the punishment meted out to Jardines as appropriate and severe.

The association will also work with the SFC to set up guidelines for internal controls.