Think whatever you like about dragging up details from the past, but then admit that a tribunal in Hong Kong adjudicating on an appeal by HSBC Private Bank against a fine imposed by the local Securities and Futures Commission has probably made a fair and final proclamation on the Lehman Brothers debacle.

In brief, the private bank' sales process fell short of a reasonable standard, while it also knew enough about the US bank deteriorating credit quality to reduce its own broking limits in relation to Lehman's bonds. Investors suffered on both counts.

Piercing the gloom is a statement from Ashley Alder, chief executive officer of Hong Kong's SFC, declaring the fine 'exemplary in that, for the greater protection of the integrity of Hong Kong's financial markets, it provides a stern warning that principles of professional conduct must be adhered to".

Instead of spewing out a trite acknowledgement that bad things were done and administering merely a financial levy, Alder's words are a powerful warning to all those who think that this kind of bad behaviour is ever OK. Alongside the broadside, the fine is a substantial one, especially for private banks in Asia who are increasingly feeling the squeeze of narrowing margins.

But what was the bigger infraction, and probably the thing that annoyed Alder enough to publically admonish one of the Special Administrative Region's biggest, best placed and most powerful concerns, and service provider to a population that boasts the largest ownership of Rolls Royce cars per citizen in the world.

As far as the Lehman bankruptcy, Hong Kong is a special place, with the desire to make money as quickly as possible driving investors easily to the juicy returns that were on offer from the structured products created by the US bank. It is so special because of the ambition and the scale of the resident wealth, which is so great that, rather than protest about their losses themselves, Hong Kong's richest hired students to protest on their behalf, with those still learning touting themselves around for large amounts of daily cash - and you wondered why most of them wore scarves over their faces to hide their identity.

Flawed practices can take place under almost all regulatory regimes and are highly dependent on the enforcement of regulators, and that is the element that has changed since the financial crisis. While new rules and regulations have been written, it is the overwhelming presence and warning noises emerging from regulators that have changed the way that bankers have done their business.

It is perhaps the second part of the warning from the SFC that goes to the core of the worry. There has been a stream of statements from regulators aimed at banks that have been doing one thing internally and taking the appropriate measures to protect themselves from direct losses, such as with Lehman, when banks pulled credit lines and stopped lending them interbank funds. But it is alarming to think that while all of that chaos was going on in the financial markets and people were starting to guess the first to go bankrupt, that banks and, in this case private banks, failed to pass on that expertise and at least knowledge to their clients.

In some cases, the problem could well be that the internal risk managers were not particularly inclined or interested in sharing this knowledge of the risk with investors, but the other case is the one that is the most difficult, and that's the one where people were still making money on distributing Lehman products. And it is that reason for selling products that Alder is most annoyed about.

While compliance has increased, it doesn't take much time to locate the poor practices of individual sales people and companies. Hong Kong's SFC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission publish a regular litany of the transgressors of fair practice. Alder sees these poor practices and is right to alert the Hong Kong market to this bad practice, but, having seen all of the local infractions, imagine what Alder thinks when he sees a company full of masses of salespeople, ie. a bank.

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