Hong Kong's securities regulator Monday reprimanded and fined Swiss bank Julius Baer HK$3m ($390,000) for failing to properly identify wealthy clients as professional investors in selling its products between 2006 and 2008.

"The difference between professional investors and ordinary retail customers is a profoundly important one. Firms that do not classify customers properly, in strict compliance with the requirements, impose undue risks on those customers," Mark Steward, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's Executive Director of Enforcement, said in a statement.