Insurance Authority suspends Chiu Kin Fung Jacky for ten months for falsifying signatures and impersonation

Insurance Authority suspends Chiu Kin Fung Jacky for ten months for falsifying signatures and impersonation

17 April 2024

The Insurance Authority (IA) has taken disciplinary action against Mr Chiu Kin Fung Jacky (Mr Chiu), an individual insurance agent and a registered mandatory provident fund (MPF) subsidiary intermediary (SI) at the material time, by suspending his licence as an insurance agent for ten months on the ground that, by his actions in forging a client's signature and instigating impersonation on multiple occasions, he has shown that he is not a fit and proper person to carry on regulated activities as an insurance agent.

In 2016, a client instructed Mr Chiu in his capacity as a registered MPF SI to transfer her MPF accrued benefits from several MPF trustees to the principal intermediary by which Mr. Chiu was appointed. Mr. Chiu proceeded to accomplish this by forging the client's signature (without the client's knowledge) on five transfer application forms across the period between 2017 and 2020. He also enlisted the help of his female colleagues to impersonate the client on six separate occasions to call the relevant trustees from which the benefits were being transferred, in order to obtain the client's account details.

Mr. Chiu's methods only came to light when he used the wrong transfer application form in 2020, causing his principal to notify the client who then realized it was not her who had been signing all the forms.

Being given the statutory role for monitoring compliance of registered MPF intermediaries in the insurance sector, the IA investigated the matter as the relevant frontline regulator of the MPF intermediary concerned. After discussing and considering the investigation findings with the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, the IA decided to take disciplinary action under the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41).

The means by which Mr Chiu effected the transfers demonstrated a lack of integrity in his conduct. Completing applications forms and obtaining personal information about a client for these purposes are tasks that are core to carrying on regulated activities as an insurance intermediary, as much as they are in serving as an MPF intermediary. In demonstrating a propensity to forge client signatures on application forms and using elicit means to obtain client information through enlisting colleagues to impersonate the client, Mr Chiu displayed such a lack of ethics and integrity as to impugn his fitness and properness to carry on regulated activities as an insurance agent. A suspension of his licence is therefore justified and necessary to punish and deter such behaviour and to afford time for reflection and reform of character.

The IA acknowledges Mr Chiu's admission of his wrongdoings and his cooperation in accepting the disciplinary action which has resulted in prompt resolution of this matter. This serves as a necessary first step in rehabilitating his character.

In deciding the disciplinary sanction to be imposed under the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41), the IA has weighed all relevant circumstances in the balance, including that:

1. Mr Chiu forged the client's signatures on five MPF transfer applications between 2017 and 2020;
2. Mr Chiu instructed at least two female colleagues to impersonate the client on six separate occasions;
3. Mr Chiu benefitted financially (i.e. he received commission) from his said conduct;
4. Mr Chiu expressed remorse over his conduct;
5. Mr Chiu's otherwise clear disciplinary record; and
6. The need to send a message to deter similar conduct.

For further information on the IA's enforcement work, please see the "Enforcement News" section of the IA's website. Public disciplinary actions against licensed insurance intermediaries may also be searched on the Register of Licensed Insurance Intermediaries on our website.

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