Following announcements during the 2021-22 Budget by the Finance Secretary Paul Chan, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued on 10 May 2021 details of the grant scheme available for Hong Kong open-ended fund companies (OFCs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) ...
In the recent case of A v D, HCCT 52/2020, the court dismissed the Applicants’ application for an extension of time to set aside an arbitral award. It held that bearing in mind the objectives of the Arbitration Ordinance (Ordinance) there should be finality in an award and the short period of three months to apply to set aside an award in Article 34 (3) of the Model Law (adopted by s ...
On 20 May 2020, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China issued the Circular on Supporting the Development of New Forms of Trade (Circular). The Circular summarised previous pilot experiences and, established foreign exchange (forex) policies that are meant to optimise new forms of trade[1]. The Circular has been implemented since the date of its promulgation ...
Private open-ended fund companies (OFCs) in Hong Kong are subject to regulation by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The SFC has taken a streamlined approach to regulating private OFCs. High degree of flexibility No investment restrictions: Pursuant to the SFC’s revised Code on Open-Ended Fund Companies (OFC Code) all investment restrictions for private OFCs have been removed ...
Private open-ended fund companies (OFCs) in Hong Kong are subject to regulation by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The SFC has taken a streamlined approach to regulating private OFCs. (I) High degree of flexibility No investment restrictions: Pursuant to the SFC’s revised Code on Open-Ended Fund Companies (OFC Code) all investment restrictions for private OFCs have been removed ...
The role that Asian banks will play in film financing in Asia is a challenging and necessary one as we continue to see the fast paced growth of the Asian film industries. Asia is, so far, an untapped resource of ideas, stories, shooting locations, skilled crew, talent and effective film making techniques ...
The European Commission adopted a new set of Standard Contractual Clauses (“New SCCs”), effective 27 June 2021, for the transfer of personal data to non-EU regions. From 27 September 2021 onwards, data exporters and data importers can only conclude contracts which incorporate the New SCCs for the transfer of personal data out of the European Union ...
On 12 August 2020, the Ministry of Commerce released via Circular the State Council approved Master Plan for the Comprehensive Deepening of the Pilot Programme for the Innovative Development of the Trade in Services together with a schedule of specific measures (2020 Plan). The 2020 Plan includes 8 pilot tasks and 122 specific measures to open, facilitate and support the innovative development of the Trade in Services ...
Four mainland financial and monetary authorities, including the People’s Bank of China, proposed measures from five perspectives to support construction of the Greater Bay Area (“GBA”) in the Opinions on Financial Support for the Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the “Opinions”). The measures mentioned in the Opinions are summarised below with a focus on the banking sector ...
Did you know? The new Trade Marks (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 which came into effect on 19 June 2020 empowers the Registrar of Trade Marks to make the rules for implementing the long-awaited Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (the “Madrid Protocol”) in Hong Kong ...
Background On 10 September 2021, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and People’s Bank of China (PBoC)released their respective implementation rules in connection with the cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect (WMC) pilot scheme in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) ...
Every day in Mumbai, India, a team of 5,000 couriers deliver, collect and return 200,000 lunch boxes. This massive logistics operation is undertaken with an error rate of less than 1 in 8 million deliveries and without using any information technology. Enormous labour cost disparities enable this manual operation to be undertaken cost-effectively ...
The Hong Kong Money Authority (HKMA) published a White Paper on 30 June 2020 to set out its recommendations and supervisory expectations on green and sustainable banking around four areas: governance, strategy, risk management and disclosure. The HKMA advised AIs which are subsidiaries of international banks to assess relevance of any parent bank’s climate policy in the context of its Hong Kong operations and ensure that local specialties are addressed ...
On 21 August 2020, the HKIMR, the research arm of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance, released its second report, entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Banking: The Changing Landscape in Compliance and Supervision”. The report is intended as a starting point for understanding the broad implications of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) adoption in the banking industry, as well as in relation to compliance and supervision ...
In several recent years, Hong Kong’s equity capital market has raised the most new funds from IPOs, in some of those years raising more than London and New York combined. A global finance centre There were a number of massive listings in the market before the financial crisis, notably of state owned Chinese banks. These gave a strong impetus to the emergence of Hong Kong as a key financial centre ...
Best Practices & Standards The hedge fund industry has experienced trying times over the past few months. Year-end redemption requests have flooded the sector. Scandals such as the so-called "ponzi" scheme allegedly carried out by Bernard Madoff resulting in billions of dollars in losses have shaken the industry ...
Background On 24 April 2020, the People’s Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly released the “Opinions on Financial Support for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” (Opinions) ...
The GFMA recently provided its response to the Financial Stability Board’s (“FSB”) consultation paper (“the Paper”) titled Addressing The Regulatory, Supervisory And Oversight Challenges Raised By “Global Stablecoin” Arrangements. The GFMA put forward certain recommendations to support the implementation of global stablecoin (“GSC”) arrangements provided for in the Paper ...
There a number of reasons why Hong Kong banks freeze a customer’s bank account but this article is limited to exploring why Hong Kong banks may be required to do so for money laundering reasons. The money laundering offence in Hong Kong law The offence of “money laundering” is prosecuted in Hong Kong under section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap. 455 (“OSCO”) ...
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently published a report on its 12-month review of the Revised FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, and a report on so-called stablecoins which highlighted associated risks of money laundering/terrorism financing (“ML/TF”) ...
In the case of Leung Ka Lau & Ors v The Hospital Authority [2006] HKEC 399, doctors working in public hospitals successfully claimed compensation in the Court of First Instance for "rest days" and "holidays" for which they had been deprived but lost their claim on compensation for "overtime" worked (Please refer to our newsletter issue 2006.2) ...
The “right to be forgotten” (“RTBF”) has been central to the global debate over the balance between individual privacy and freedom of information and of the media in recent years. Such right has been affirmed by the European Court of Justice in a milestone case in 2014, as well as later in the UK, although its application in other countries remains uncertain ...
