PETALING JAYA, July 31 — CIMB Group said today it has a zero tolerance policy on staff who misuse information or their position to profit illegally after a former vice president was slapped with a five-year prohibition order by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The Group said in a press statement that the policy applied to all its subsidiaries.

"CIMB takes compliance seriously, with internal controls and processes to ensure compliance, and would not hesitate to take strong measures against staff who fail to abide by the law and our internal compliance processes,” it said.

The Singaporean agency said in a statement, as reported by Bernama, earlier today that the prohibition on Alan Tay Yeow Kee, the former CIMB Bank Bhd vice president, took effect from July 30, 2018.

It said Tay had in 2011 arranged for another person to purchase, on his behalf, the shares of Qualitas Medical Group Limited and Leeden Limited which were listed on the Singapore Exchange at the time.

Tay did this while in possession of non-public and price sensitive information that both companies had received takeover offers, it said, adding he obtained the inside information on the takeover offers by virtue of his position in CIMB from November 2010 to November 2016.

The prices of both Qualitas’ and Leeden’s shares rose after the takeover offers were announced by the companies and Tay made a profit of around S$30,000 (RM89,386) from the shares purchased with the privileged information.

In May 2017, Tay was convicted on three charges under section 219(2)(b) of the Securities and Futures Act  for insider trading. Three other charges were taken into consideration in the sentencing.

He was fined S$180,000 (RM536,292).