I would like to thank everyone who participated in our hybrid Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 15 December 2022. It is my great honour to have been elected your President for another term, and I am also delighted to be working with an excellent team of other Honorary Officers and Council members elected/re-elected at the AGM. David Fu FCG HKFCG(PE), who served as Institute President for two terms in 2018 and 2019, and as an exofficio member of Council for the last three years, retires from Council this month. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank him for his contributions.

As the new year gets underway, our journal continues to focus on the work ahead of us as governance professionals. One theme I am sure we will be hearing a lot about in 2023 is the ever-increasing regulatory expectations regarding anti–money laundering and counter–financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). This month’s journal reviews our annual forum updating practitioners on all the latest developments in this space. The 3rd AML/CFT Conference, held on 25 November 2022, was the ideal opportunity for our members to stay in touch with evolving trends such as the impact of new regulation and technologies on AML/CFT best practice.

Regarding the regulatory trend, only last month Hong Kong passed an amendment to the Anti–Money Laundering and Counter–Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO), launching a licencing regime for virtual asset service providers and a registration regime for dealers in precious metals and stones. The law has also been amended to bring in a broader definition of ‘beneficial owner’ in the context of trusts and to include politically exposed persons (PEPs) from the Mainland in the definition of PEPs in the AMLO.

In addition to keeping up with Hong Kong’s expanding regulatory regime, governance professionals have also had to adapt to the ways in which new technologies have increased the opportunities both for malpractice and the efficiency with which trust and company service providers (TCSPs) can assist in the fight to combat malpractice. Our cover stories this month update us, among other things, on the new tools available to upgrade our AML/CFT due diligence controls.

Since its launch in 2020, our annual AML/CFT forum has grown in popularity, but it is only the latest in a series of Institute initiatives to promote AML/CFT best practice among TCSPs in Hong Kong. As early as 2008, the Institute produced its first checklist to help practitioners upgrade their AML/CFT controls. This was followed in 2016 by a set of voluntary standards for adoption by the TCSP sector and, in that same year, the launch of our AML/CFT Charter, which continues to provide a badge of quality for HKCGI AML/CFT Organisations.

This aspect of the Institute’s work has received a major vote of confidence from the HKSAR Government. Its Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment Report 2022, submitted to the Financial Action Task Force as part of Hong Kong’s mutual evaluation process, highlights the professionalism of the Institute’s members in the senior management of TCSPs.

Rest assured, our Institute will continue to maintain the momentum in this and other areas of governance practice, and I am looking forward in my second term as President to taking forward the Institute’s work in 2023 and beyond. It only remains for me to wish you all the best for the Year of the Rabbit!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!