The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have announced that they will commence a concurrent thematic review in the second half of 2020 to assess intermediaries’ practices in respect of spread charges and related disclosure to clients. Read more
On 28 April 2020, the Hong Kong Competition Commission (HKCC) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance collaboration and exchange of information, particularly in respect of competition issues in the securities and futures industry. Read more
Welcome to the Spring 2020 edition of our corporate crime update - our round up of developments in relation to corruption, money laundering, fraud, sanctions and related matters. Read more
On 8 May 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) commenced a three-month industry consultation on a proposed framework for a mandatory reference checking scheme (MRC Scheme) to address the phenomenon of “rolling bad apples” moving between financial institutions without disclosing previous misconduct to their new employer. Read more
On 5 May 2020, five financial regulators and two government bureaux published a joint statement to announce the establishment of the Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group to drive green and sustainable finance policy in Hong Kong. Read more
In this blog post, we round-up forthcoming developments in the UK and at EU and International levels in financial services regulation which are expected for May 2020. Read more
As discussed in our previous bulletin, Malaysia is anticipating the new corporate liability provision, i.e. Section 17A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (“MACC Act”) to take effect on 1 June 2020. The new corporate offence under Section 17A of the MACC Act is applicable to the broadly defined “commercial organisation”, which not only includes Malaysia incorporated companies but also commercial organisations incorporated outside Malaysia that carry on business or any part of a business in Malaysia. Hence, companies with headquarters and offices overseas may potentially be caught by Section 17A should there be any part of its business operating in Malaysia. Read more
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has extended its deadline for licensed corporations to confirm compliance with its new data storage regulations, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On 31 March 2020, the SFC granted a six-month extension to the implementation deadline for aspects of its 31 October 2019 circular on the use of external electronic data storage providers (EDSPs) by licensed corporations for the storage of regulatory records (EDSP Circular). Read more
On 6 March 2020, the HKMA issued a circular setting out its expectations on risk management for algorithmic (algo) trading, as well as sound practices observed from thematic on-site examinations of seven authorised institutions (AIs) in 2019.
The on-site examinations of the seven AIs, mainly international banks using algorithms for making investment decisions, were conducted following a survey by the HKMA which found (among other things) that around 40% of the AIs surveyed were engaging in algo trading and that a majority of such AIs were intending to expand the scale of their algo trading.
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