CySEC fines owner of Ayers Alliance Financial Group

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) announced that it has fined Tung San Tat Clement, owner of Ayers Alliance Financial Group Ltd, for failing to provide timely, complete and accurate information as part of an investigation into its activities.

The CySEC Board made the decision at a meeting in August, after it said Tung San Tat Clement “did not comply with the obligation to provide timely, complete and accurate information to a request for collection of information addressed to him around May 2023 in the context of an investigation conducted by CySEC for Ayers Alliance Financial Group Ltd within the stipulated period”.

And so, it added, it decided to impose:

a) an administrative fine of €10,000 and

(b) a daily administrative fine of €850 for each day of continued refusal to comply with said request, with immediate effect.

Ayers Alliance’s (previously known as Harborx Ltd) first regulatory problems began in April 2022, when CySEC announced that the company had violated the Cypriot investment law. Back then, the regulator ordered the company to cease the practice of using personnel without the skills, knowledge and expertise required for the performance of the responsibilities of the head of the Risk Management Department.

And in April this year, CySEC ordered the company to cease, within six months, the conduct of cooperating, for the deposit of its clients’ financial instruments: with third parties who are not established in a jurisdiction where the safekeeping of financial instruments for the account of another person is subject to specific regulation and supervision; and in countries of establishment where specific regulation and supervision applies, with third parties which are not subject to the specific regulation and supervision.

Ayers Alliance has been licensed by CySEC since 2014. Recently, the company announced that, due to circumstances beyond its "immediate control," it felt compelled to cease providing its investment services and voluntarily wished to relinquish its Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF) licence. As part of its licensed services, Ayers offered asset management, structured products, and units in collective investments.

This prompted CySEC to initiate the investigation, which resulted in the fines that were announced in late September.