The offence under section 20A of the SIA committed by WK Securities Sdn. Bhd. for not seeking the written consent of the SC to carry on its business from 20 March 1998 - 1 April 1998 when it did not meet the minimum financial requirements was compounded for RM30,000. The stockbroking company has paid the compound.

Section 20A of the SIA states that no licensed person shall carry on the business in respect of which it is licensed without the written consent of the SC if it does not meet the minimum financial requirements (MLF) as may be prescribed by the regulations made under this Act or as may be provided for by the rules of a stock exchange.

Investigation commenced as a result of a report received by the SC from the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) which disclosed that WK Securities Sdn. Bhd. experienced a deficit in its MLF after including the provision for floating losses of their margin clients in the computation of the MLF as provided for under Rule 17A(6) of the KLSE Rules Relating to Member Companies.

In a separate action, the SC also compounded an offence under section 22 of the SIA committed by Choo Chien Yow for RM30,000. Choo Chien Yow had wilfully made a false statement to the SC in connection with his application for renewal of his dealer's representative's licence dated 25 April 1997.

Section 22 of the SIA states that a person who in connection with an application for a licence or for the renewal of a licence wilfully makes a statement that is false or misleading in a material particular knowing it to be false or misleading or wilfully omits to state any matter or thing without which the application is misleading in a material respect commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one million ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or both.

The above offences are compoundable under section 124 of the SIA.

The compoundable powers of the SC was recently broadened when, in November of last year, the Securities Commission Act (SCA) 1993 was amended to, inter alia, incorporate a new section 39C on the compounding of offences under the SCA. The Securities Commission (Compoundable Offences) Regulations 1998 which prescribe certain offences under the SCA to be compoundable offences came into effect on 1 January 1999.