The Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong has slapped another ban on a former bank employee - Joyce Hsu Ming Mei, a former licensed representative of Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific - preventing her from re-entering the industry for life.

Hsu, who was licensed under the Securities and Futures Ordinance to deal in securities (Type 1) and futures contracts (Type 2), was sentenced by the District Court in February 2011 to 42 months imprisonment after being convicted on 20 counts of theft and 12 counts of access to computer for dishonest intent, the SFC said in a statement released this week.

The District Court found that, between September 2007 and February 2008, Hsu dishonestly effected a number of unauthorised transactions, fund transfers and loan draw-downs in customer accounts that she handled during her employment with Merrill Lynch.

The SFC said it considers Hsu “not a fit and proper person” to be licensed as a result of her convictions. In deciding the sanction, the regulator took into account the seriousness of Hsu’s wrongdoings that led to Hsu’s convictions and imprisonment, and the direct relevance of the wrongdoings to her fitness and properness to be licensed under the SFO.

The SFC has also taken disciplinary action against Merrill Lynch in relation to its failings to take adequate steps to properly handle the complaints of 11 clients who were serviced by Hsu.

The ban on Hsu, follows the imposition of the life-time ban on former bank employee, Ho Wing Kin, after being convicted and jailed of misappropriating about $1.3 billion from three customer’s accounts. He was convicted of five charges of theft and on 10 August 2011, he was sentenced to imprisonment of 26 months.