By Emily Song

Fidelity International has suspended two veteran fund managers in Hong Kong over a possible breach of the company’s internal code of ethics, which could affect 14 funds with roughly US$7.4 billion in clients’ money, according to the Financial Times. The company has invoked an internal investigation into the matter and alerted local regulators, the SFC. Megan Aitken, a spokeswoman for Fidelity International in Hong Kong, said there was no reason to believe that there had been any criminal misconduct had taken place – the company declined to specify the nature of the breach, although it did add that there was no evidence of insider trading.

She adds that Fidelity had very strict internal compliance procedures and treated any breach of their internal code of conduct extremely seriously. The funds have been reassigned to three experienced managers within the Asia-Pacific team. Fidelity suspended the two fund managers on January 18.

Data from Fidelity and Hong Kong’s SFC reveals that the managers in question, Wilson Wong and Kevin Chang, began their careers as research analysts at Fidelity before going on to become portfolio managers. According to the Financial Times, Mr. Wong is a China expert with a strong track record and had been expected to help to set up a new China-focused fund in Hong Kong in March. Mr. Chang is best known for running the Fidelity South East Asia Fund.