British banker's HK securities licences cancelled around time of first murder - records

HONG KONG, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A British banker charged with killing two women in Hong Kong had his securities licences sponsored by Bank of America Corp cancelled around the time the first victim was killed, records with the city's regulators show.

A charge sheet read out when Rurik Jutting appeared in court on Monday said one woman was killed on Oct. 27 and the second on Nov. 1.

The killings did not come to public light until Nov. 1 when police found the bodies in Jutting's apartment. The first victim had been put in a suitcase on his balcony.

Bank of America declined to comment on the licences. The bank has previously said Jutting, 29, was an employee until recently but it has not said why he left or given any timeframe.

Jutting held licences sponsored by the U.S. bank from Oct. 7, 2013, through Oct. 28, 2014, according to the website of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

His licences with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority began on Nov. 7, 2013 and ended on Oct. 27, 2014, its website showed.

Such licences are mandatory for any financial professional to operate in Hong Kong.

A LinkedIn account under Jutting's name said he had worked in structured equity finance and trading at Bank of America in Hong Kong since July 2013. Before that, he had worked in the same department but in London.

Over the weekend, the SFC website had shown that Jutting still had active securities licences. Sharon Lau, an official at the regulator, said changes can take some days to be reflected.

The SFC did not respond to a request for details on when it received the application to cancel Jutting's licences.

A spokesperson for the monetary authority, Hong Kong's defacto central bank, said it did not comment on individual cases.

Jutting has been charged with two counts of murder. He did not enter a plea on Monday and did not seek bail. The next hearing is on Monday, Nov. 10.

The woman in the suitcase was identified as Sumarti Ningsih, according to the charge sheet. The second woman has not been identified. The court was not told how they were killed.

Local media described the two victims as prostitutes and said both had neck injuries, adding one was nearly decapitated. One of the women was Indonesian, the South China Morning Post newspaper has reported.

Jutting could face life in jail if convicted.

Such murders are rare in the city of seven million, which had just 14 homicides between January and June, down from 56 in the same period last year, according to government crime statistics. (Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Dean Yates)