The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has banned Mr Richard Charles Heyes, a former responsible officer, Manager-In-Charge of Key Business Line, board member and Head of Pan-Asia Equities at Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, from re-entering the industry for five years from 15 September 2025 to 14 September 2030. The action links Heyes’ management and supervisory lapses to the firm’s earlier misconduct involving mislabelled indications of interest and misrepresentations to institutional clients in facilitation trading over 2008 to 2018. The SFC found Heyes should have known about the Equities Sales Trading Desk’s practice of sending mislabelled IOIs and that he failed to ensure effective controls over IOI issuance, including after an SFC review in 2014 raised concerns and after receiving reports of client complaints in 2017 and 2018. It also concluded he did not ensure adequate guidelines and compliance monitoring for disclosure of the firm’s principal role and obtaining client consent before facilitation trades, and failed to act on internal emails indicating traders were misrepresenting facilitation trades as agency trades. In setting the sanction, the SFC cited the seriousness and duration of the failings, and took into account Heyes’ cooperation, withdrawal of his appeal to the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal, and otherwise clean disciplinary record.
Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission 2025-09-16
Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission bans former Citigroup Global Markets Asia senior manager Richard Heyes for five years over controls failures tied to mislabelled IOIs and facilitation trades
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has banned Richard Charles Heyes, a former senior officer at Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, from the industry for five years due to management and supervisory lapses linked to misconduct from 2008 to 2018. Heyes failed to control mislabelled indications of interest and misrepresentations in facilitation trading, despite warnings and client complaints. The SFC considered the seriousness of the failings, Heyes' cooperation, and his clean disciplinary record in determining the sanction.