The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a five-year prohibition order (PO) against Muhammad Hafiz Bin Ismail, a former representative of DBS Bank Limited.
The order was issued following Mr Hafiz’s conviction for intentionally obstructing the course of justice by the State Courts, and separate contraventions of the Financial Advisers Act (FAA) and the Securities and Futures Act (SFA).
Under the order, which took effect from 20 May 2024, Mr Hafiz is prohibited from providing any financial advisory service, and from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder, of any financial advisory firm under the FAA. He is also prohibited from performing any regulated activity and from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder, of any capital markets services firm under the SFA.
In January 2018, the Police informed Mr Hafiz that his uncle had been arrested for theft-related offences. Mr Hafiz then directed his colleague to move a safe belonging to his uncle from Mr Hafiz’s business premises, to prevent the Police from locating the safe. For his actions, Mr Hafiz was convicted on 25 May 2022 of one count of abetting an offence of intentionally obstructing the course of justice under section 204A read with section 108B and section 109 of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to 1 week’s imprisonment.
In addition, on 8 September 2020, while under investigation by the Police for the above-mentioned offence, Mr Hafiz applied to be a wealth planning manager with DBS but failed to state in his fit and proper declaration to DBS that he was under investigation. DBS then relied on his response in the declaration to certify to MAS that he was fit and proper to be a representative of the bank. By wilfully omitting such pertinent information in his declaration, Mr Hafiz has contravened section 23L(2)(b) of the FAA, and section 99O(2)(b) of the SFA.
Mr Hafiz’s conviction and contraventions have given MAS reason to believe that he will not perform financial advisory and capital markets services honestly. While Mr Hafiz is no longer an appointed representative in Singapore, the PO was issued against him to safeguard the integrity of and trust in Singapore’s financial sector.
