The FSB, the organisation that coordinates the development of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies at an international level, published its final report on the regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin (“GSC”) arrangements (“Final Report”) in October 2020 ...
The FSI has published the BIS’s research paper titled “Fintech regulation: how to achieve a level playing field” in February 2021 (the “Paper”). The Paper explores how regulation should evolve to encourage fair competition between traditional banks and new fintech and big tech players ...
On 15 September 2021, the SFC issued a press release relating to the Consultation Conclusions (Conclusions) on proposals to amend its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) guidelines, approximately one year after the SFC issued the consultation paper (Consultation) on 18 September last year ...
An increasing number of investment managers in Hong Kong are considering the adoption of the open-ended fund company (OFC) structure following announcements by the government of subsidy initiatives to cover 70% of expenses paid to local professional service providers for the establishment of OFCs and the re-domiciliation of funds as OFCs. As a key operator of an OFC, the investment manager should be well informed of its obligations and duties under the OFC regime ...
Whilst crypto-assets are customarily associated with high volatility, a low-volatility crypto-asset, the so-called “stablecoin”, has emerged recently. Stablecoin initiatives typically aim to create a store of value backing the crypto-asset and means of exchange. In view of the increasing discussion of such initiatives, in particular with global technology firms contemplating the issuance of their own stablecoin (e ...
The government has rolled out a series of measures to relieve the economic impact brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Introduced under the second round Anti-epidemic Fund, the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) has come under the spotlight as it aims to provide wage subsidies to employers against their undertaking to spend all subsidies on paying wages to their employees and not to implement redundancy during the subsidy period ...
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council’s Panel on Financial Affairs discussed tax concessions for carried interest in its meeting on 4 January 2021, following the publication of a discussion paper by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB). The FSTB’s paper sets out proposals to offer a zero percent concessionary tax rate for eligible carried interest distributed by eligible private equity funds operating in Hong Kong ...
In an effort to attract more foreign talent to work in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation jointly issued a Notice on 14 March 2019, granting Individual Income Tax (IIT) subsidy to overseas (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) high-end talent and talent in short supply working in the GBA (Circular 31) ...
In the first part of the series, “Grey Divorce – hidden battles for protection and succession of family assets”, we looked at the recent trend of an increasing divorce rate for older couples and, in particular, the case of CSH vs LS or LS formerly known as CYY (FCMC 12435/2016; [2020] HKFC 143) (the CSH case) ...
The Insurance Authority has recently issued a Guideline on Application for Authorisation to carry on Special Purpose Business. This largely reflects the content of the amendments made to the Insurance Ordinance by the Insurance (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 and the Insurance (Special Purpose Business) Rules. In this regard, see our Client Alerts dated 27 May 2020 and 10 March 2021 by referring to the following links ...
In September 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) issued the Guideline explaining the HKMA’s interpretation of some of his oversight requirements under the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance (“PSSVFO”) relating to designated Retail Payment Systems (“Designated RPS”) so as to assist system operators (“SO”) or settlement institutions (“SI”) of Designated RPS to understand and comply with such requiremen
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has recently released its consultation conclusions on the proposed enhancements to the open-ended fund companies (OFC) regime. Highlights include: Removal of investment restrictions for private OFCs; Expansion of entities eligible to act as custodian of private OFCs; and Confirmation of the SFC’s intention to provide for a statutory mechanism to re-domicile overseas corporate funds to Hong Kong as OFCs ...
On 24 June 2020, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its latest Annual Report, covering the 12-month period to 31 March 2020. As in previous years, the report provides a useful summary of what the SFC has done over the past year particularly in terms of achieving its publicly stated goals and providing insight into its priorities moving forward ...
On 5 July 2021, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a press release which announced that it has reprimanded and fined Mr Raymond Leung Tak Shing (Leung) HK$400,000 for failing to discharge his duties in relation to AML requirements as a member of a licensed firm’s senior management team ...
The HKIAC’s statistics for 2020 reveal that in 2020 the HKIAC received a record number of arbitration filings (the highest number received in over a decade) and the total amount in dispute in the arbitrations was another record high. Most hearings were fully or partially virtual, which is unsurprising given the pandemic outbreak last year. The following are some of the more notable statistics: 483 new cases were submitted to the HKIAC in 2020 ...
The HKIAC recently published its “Average Costs and Duration Report”, which reveals some interesting statistics about the average cost and duration of arbitrations administered by the HKIAC under the HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules (Rules). The statistics are derived from cases in which a final award was issued between 1 November 2013 and 31 May 2021 (Relevant Period) ...
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) released a technical whitepaper on CBDC on 4th October 2021 “e-HKD: A technical perspective” (“Whitepaper”). The HKMA announced its “Fintech 2025” strategy in June this year, one part of which is to strengthen research work into CBDC with a view to future-proofing Hong Kong in terms of CBDC readiness ...
On 8 June 2021, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) unveiled “Fintech 2025”, a new strategy aiming to drive fintech development in Hong Kong. In essence, “Fintech 2025” seeks to encourage the financial sector to adopt technology in their businesses and transactions comprehensively by 2025 by focusing on the following five key areas: 1 ...
On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus, (subsequently renamed as COVID-19), “a public health emergency of international concern”. Various unprecedented and draconian measures were imposed by the PRC Government and other governments around the world, namely, a city lockdown, travel restrictions and bans, extension of the Lunar New Year holidays, mandatory quarantine orders, border closures, etc ...
In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for different creditors to issue multiple petitions against the same debtor company. This may be due to the large number of listed companies in Hong Kong encountering financial difficulties during this period of economic downturn, or simply a lack of knowledge of the law in this area ...
“Arbitration agreement” is defined under section 19 of the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap 609) as an agreement by the parties to submit to arbitration all or certain disputes which have arisen or which may arise between them in respect of a defined legal relationship, whether contractual or not. Disputes submitted to arbitration may involve contractual claims and non-contractual claims, such as tortious claims ...
In Changfeng Shipping Holdings Limited v Sinoriches Enterprises Co., Limited HCCT 59/2019; [2020] HKCFI 2703, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance laid down the principles applicable to service out of the jurisdiction of examination orders on officers of corporate judgment debtors pursuant to Order 48 rule 1 and Order 11 rule 9(4) of the Rules of the High Court (Cap. 4A) (RHC) ...
On 24 February 2021, the Finance Secretary Paul Chan delivered the 2021-22 Budget which highlighted upcoming government initiatives to promote the establishment of and re-domiciliation of offshore funds to Hong Kong using the Hong Kong open-ended fund company structure (OFC) ...
