DeVere Group has licence suspended following probe
CIB decision follows investigation into financial advisory firm's sales practices by regulators
Financial advisory firm deVere Group Hong Kong has had its licence suspended as part of an investigation into its operations by regulators.
The Confederation of Insurance Brokers (CIB), one of two self-regulated bodies that supervise local brokers, said yesterday it had suspended deVere's membership until a disciplinary investigation had concluded.
The CIB decision, reached on May 12 and announced in a statement yesterday, effectively prevents deVere from accepting new business and comes following a probe by the South China Morning Post into allegations surrounding the firm's sales staff.
The CIB statement said it had suspended deVere under Article 32 of its ordinance, which governs member conduct.
The original Post report named six deVere staff including then Hong Kong operations head Edward Rice as working in client-facing roles without a CIB licence - an offence under the Insurance Companies Ordinance. The Post also detailed client complaint letters sent to the CIB.
DeVere said at the time that none of the named staff were client facing and therefore licensing was not required.
DeVere, which claims to have 80,000 clients worldwide, has been disciplined eight times by the CIB in the past nine years for breaches of industry rules.