MAS bans 3 financial advisers for falsifying records and providing false information
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The agents – Ms Eunice Yuen Pui Leng, Ms Grace Tan Zhen Zhi and Mr Benny Lim Hee Loon – have been given bans of five years, three years and one year respectively.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE - Three former or current insurance agents have been banned by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for falsifying records and providing false information to the authorities.
The agents – Ms Eunice Yuen Pui Leng, Ms Grace Tan Zhen Zhi and Mr Benny Lim Hee Loon – have been given bans of five years, three years and one year respectively.
The bans, which take effect from May 24, will prohibit them from providing any financial advisory services.
In addition, they will not be allowed to manage or become a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm.
Ms Yuen and Ms Tan are also prohibited from doing business as an insurance agent or taking part in the management of any insurance intermediary, said MAS in a statement on May 24.
The trio were formerly representatives of insurer Prudential Singapore. Mr Lim’s most recent employer was Manulife Financial.
On Sept 14, 2018, Ms Yuen was notified to attend an interview with MAS in connection with an ongoing investigation.
She was informed by MAS that she was required to produce documentary evidence of coaching conducted by her for representatives within her agency group.
Such evidence was relevant to establish who was conducting supervision of these representatives and whether such supervisors were being remunerated in accordance with MAS’ requirements, said the statement.
Before the interview, Ms Yuen told Ms Tan to make up false entries on coaching forms, which Ms Yuen then submitted to MAS.
Ms Yuen had also intentionally deleted messages from her mobile phone ahead of the interview, knowing that the information would likely be required by MAS as part of its investigation.
During the course of MAS’ investigation into Ms Yuen and Ms Tan in October 2018, Mr Lim attended an interview with MAS, in which he made several false statements.
One of them included signing off on coaching forms on the dates when Ms Yuen supposedly coached him as his supervisor.
Mr Lim later admitted that he had signed the coaching forms only on Sept 15, 2018, a day after Ms Yuen was notified to attend the interview.
In June 2023, Ms Yuen was convicted of wilfully causing false entries to be made in documents of Prudential Singapore and for furnishing falsified documents to MAS. She was fined $20,000.
Ms Tan was fined $5,000 in November 2023 for wilfully making false entries in documents of Prudential Singapore.
Mr Lim was given a warning in lieu of prosecution.
In its statement, MAS said the trio’s actions gave them reason to believe that they had not and would not carry out services as financial advisers and insurance agents honestly.
“MAS takes such misconduct seriously and will take firm action against financial services professionals who intentionally hinder MAS’ investigations by providing false information,” it added.
Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that Benny Lim Hee Loon is currently an agent for Manulife Financial. The insurance provider has since clarified that Mr Lim left the company on May 24.
