26 July, 2023
The benefits of closer regulatory collaboration in combating corporate fraud and misconduct was one of the key themes discussed at the Institute’s 24th Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU), held in hybrid mode on 9 June 2023. The Institute’s ACRU forum,...
26 July, 2023
This second and final part of the CGj review of ACRU 2023 highlights the key trends that should be on the watch list of companies and governance professionals in the year ahead. The Institute’s ACRU 2023 provided a unique opportunity to hear from the six regulators...
26 July, 2023
CGj reviews a new HKCGI research paper, published in collaboration with KPMG China in May 2023, addressing key challenges and practical considerations for organisations seeking to improve the diversity of their boards. Hong Kong lags behind many other developed...
26 July, 2023
Andrew Reeves, Partner, Annie Birch, Senior Associate, Claudia Van Gruisen, Senior Associate, and Thomas Hubbard, Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright (London), examine a proposed new ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence in the UK and discuss its potential impact, as...
26 July, 2023
In the first of this two-part article, Connie Chen, Senior Counsel, and Maarten Roos, Managing Director, R&P China Lawyers, discuss the Mainland’s latest legislation in relation to personal information protection, and give clear guidance on its implications and...
26 July, 2023
Gareth Thomas, Partner, Rachael Shek, Partner, Jojo Fan, Partner and Troy Song, Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills, overview the recent UK court ruling refusing permission for a minority shareholder to pursue a derivate action against the directors of a company in...
26 July, 2023
ACRU 2023 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full edition....
11 July, 2022
This first part of CGj’s review of the Institute’s 23rd Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU), held on 9 June 2022, highlights key takeaways from the first session, featuring speakers from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX). In the 12 months since the...
11 July, 2022
This second part of CGj’s review of the Institute’s 23rd Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) highlights key takeaways from the second session of the webinar, featuring speakers from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The first part of this review...
11 July, 2022
This final part of the CGj review of the Institute’s 23rd Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU), highlights the key takeaways from the afternoon session, featuring speakers from the Companies Registry (CR), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal...
11 July, 2022
Ada Chung Lai-ling FCG HKFCG, Barrister, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), discusses new guidance published by the PCPD in May this year and the compliance implications of transfers of personal data from Hong Kong to the Mainland or other places. In the...
11 July, 2022
Jonathan Leitch, Partner, and Nigel Sharman, Senior Knowledge Lawyer, Hogan Lovells, Hong Kong, explain some recent court judgments and clarify the key issues that need to be addressed in applications for the winding-up of companies with offshore-incorporated...
11 July, 2022
ACRU 2022 review. Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
21 July, 2021
Speakers at the 22nd Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) webinar, held by The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries on 11 June, emphasised the need for regulators in Hong Kong to find the right balance between high regulatory standards and market...
21 July, 2021
The 22nd ACRU webinar urged governance professionals, in the current environment of rapid change, to be agile in their approach to compliance and governance. The agenda of this year’s ACRU demonstrates that the business environment in Hong Kong continues to grow in...
21 July, 2021
This third and final part of our review of the Institute’s 22nd ACRU webinar highlights the insights shared at the forum on compliance with Hong Kong’s corporate disclosure requirements, and its upgraded and expanded anti-money laundering and counter-financing of...
21 July, 2021
Sharan Gill, writer, lawyer and CSj contributor, reviews a new report published by the Corporate Secretaries International Association and PwC looking at the role of the company secretary in integrating climate initiatives into organisations’ governance structures....
21 July, 2021
CSj completes its review of the latest consultation published by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd in April this year and the views expressed by The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries in its submission to the consultation. Last month’s CSj looked at the...
21 July, 2021
ACRU 2021 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
23 July, 2020
A central theme to emerge from the Institute’s 21st Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) webinar, held on 5 June, was that regulators in Hong Kong will increasingly be holding individual executives, board members and professional practitioners accountable for...
23 July, 2020
Corporate disclosure issues featured highly in the discussions at this year’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU). This second part of our ACRU review looks at the insights into corporate disclosure offered by regulators and practitioners speaking at the...
23 July, 2020
This third and final part of our review of ACRU 2020 focuses on the insights shared at the forum regarding anti–money laundering and counter–terrorist financing (AML/CTF) compliance. Two years on from the implementation of Hong Kong’s new anti–money laundering and...
23 July, 2020
Carl Li, Senior Partner, AllBright Law Office, makes recommendations for meeting the compliance requirements of the social credit system, which is scheduled to become fully operational in the Mainland by the end of 2020. Corporate compliance is becoming increasingly...
23 July, 2020
Herbert Smith Freehills looks at a new report issued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on its review of self-assessments on bank culture made by 30 authorised institutions. On 22 May 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published a report on its review of...
23 July, 2020
Adelaide Luke, Partner and Howard Chan, Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills, consider the recent updates to the Hong Kong Competition Commission’s Leniency Policy and what they mean for companies that discover they have been involved in activities that infringe the...
23 July, 2020
In the second of this two-part series, Henry Kwong, Tax Partner, and Matthew Cheung, Tax Manager, Cheng & Cheng Taxation Services Ltd, assess the salient features of the anti-avoidance tax provisions, recently introduced as part of the PRC Individual Income Tax...
23 July, 2020
What is your role as a governance professional? ‘I provide oversight of all sorts of risks for several business lines within my bank. Risk management is a key component of governance, assisting the business to better identify and manage risks so as to accomplish...
23 July, 2020
ACRU 2020 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
15 July, 2019
Regulators attending the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU), held on 5 June at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, highlighted the role of governance professionals in building and maintaining effective internal controls to...
15 July, 2019
This second part of our review of the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) takes a look at the guidance offered by regulators on the issues at the top of the agenda for governance professionals in Hong Kong. The agenda of this year’s ACRU...
15 July, 2019
Tech is not just for Cyberport, says Dr George Lam, Chairman, Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Ltd, tech is for everybody, including governance professionals. Do you think people in Hong Kong are aware of just how radical the transformation of our lives and work...
15 July, 2019
Blockchain technology is being touted as ‘the new internet’. Chris Grundy, Director of Marketing at SelfKey and KYC-Chain, explains what blockchain technology is, how it can help and how it impacts compliance issues. Compliance is undergoing radical change in 2019 and...
15 July, 2019
CSj highlights the latest additions to the Institute’s guidance note series, updating members on information technology risk, intitial public offering due diligence and the latest changes to the Companies Ordinance. The Institute’s guidance notes, available from the...
15 July, 2019
Peter Brien, Benita Yu and Jing Chen of Slaughter and May review the new approach taken by The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong when assessing reliance and competition, and summarise the impact of the key changes on an applicant’s suitability for listing. The Stock...
15 July, 2019
ACRU 2019 review – The critical role of internal controls Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
12 July, 2018
Regulators attending the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update, held last month at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, confirmed that listed company governance will remain the top priority for their enforcement and educational work in...
12 July, 2018
Regulation imposes costs and restrictions and may often seem to get in the way of business, but the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update highlighted the fact that all market participants profit from a well-regulated market. This year’s...
12 July, 2018
With INEDs playing an increasingly important role in ensuring effective corporate governance, Carlson Tong SBS JP, Chairman, Securities and Futures Commission, warns that they can also expect to bear more legal responsibility when things go wrong. Some recent...
12 July, 2018
If Hong Kong companies plan to diversify their boards, they will need to restructure more than their recruitment processes, argues Rebecca Walker Chan, Project Manager, CSR Asia. Exacerbated by uneven gender ratios and antiquated social norms, opportunities for women...
12 July, 2018
Eric Sohn, CAMS, Director of Business Product, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, New York, US, looks at the potential impacts on firms involved in international trade with Iran as a result of the proposed reimposition of secondary sanctions on dealings in various...
12 July, 2018
The latest guidance note produced by the Institute’s Public Governance Interest Group explores the concept of the social enterprise. The guidance notes produced by the Institute’s Public Governance Interest Group (PGIG) have explored the many different legal...
12 July, 2018
Mei Yong, Business Development Executive, Law In Order, gives an overview of managing internal investigations using eDiscovery. Company secretaries are often the first to be called on to manage an internal investigation. How can you effectively plan for and manage...
12 July, 2018
Who needs rules? ACRU 2018 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
12 July, 2017
Katherine Ng, Senior Vice-President and Head of Policy, Listing, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (the Exchange), and a speaker at the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update seminar held last month at the Hong Kong Convention and...
12 July, 2017
The importance of cultivating an independent mindset for both independent non-executive directors and the company secretary emerged as a central theme of this year’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update seminar, held last month at the Hong Kong Convention and...
12 July, 2017
CSj highlights the main compliance issues raised by regulators at the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update. The Institute’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) provides attendees with first-hand knowledge of the emerging...
12 July, 2017
Since the 1990s, South Africa’s King Reports on Corporate Governance have consistently been at the leading edge of governance best practice. Mervyn King, Chairman of both the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa, and the International...
12 July, 2017
Gabriela Kennedy, Partner; and Karen HF Lee, Senior Associate; Mayer Brown JSM, assess the latest proposals by the Securities and Futures Commission to reduce hacking risks among licensed corporations. On 8 May 2017, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission...
12 July, 2017
ACRU 2017 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
11 July, 2016
Guo Xiangdong FCIS FCS, Deputy General Manager and Board Secretary, Guangshen Railway Co Ltd, looks at the role of the board secretary in Mainland China and compares it to the role of the company secretary in Hong Kong. The Company Law of the People’s Republic...
11 July, 2016
Huang Qing, Company Secretary, China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, assesses the progress of China’s capital market reform programme. Between June and July 2015, China’s stock market was hit by a wave of turbulence and instability. In hindsight, traders behaved...
11 July, 2016
Sustainability-related risks are forcing companies to rethink the way they operate, argues Pat Dwyer, Founder and Director, the Purpose Business. On a visit to Hong Kong back in January this year, Elon Musk (founder and CEO of Space X) warned anyone considering...
11 July, 2016
Xie Bing FCIS FCS, Board Secretary, China Southern Airlines, explains four factors relating to the compliance risks and challenges of A+H share listed companies. During the last few years, the Mainland and Hong Kong capital markets have been in an expansionary phase...
11 July, 2016
Karen Pong, Project Coordinator, CSR Asia Hong Kong, looks at the growing global green bond market and its implications for Hong Kong and China. In a newly released report, Hong Kong as a Regional Green Finance Hub, the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC)...
11 July, 2016
Zoe Chan So Yuen FCS, FCIS, LLM, MCIArb, Solicitor, argues that a Supreme Court judgment in the UK will have a significant impact on contractual risk management in Hong Kong. Corporations build up a number of contracts on a daily basis with investors, directors,...
11 July, 2016
China update – Special edition Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
7 July, 2015
Regulators at the Institute’s latest Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update seminar reaffirmed the key importance that they attach to companies’ disclosure standards. Hong Kong operates a disclosure based regulatory regime. Under this model, the regulatory...
7 July, 2015
The Institute’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) seminar is one of the few forums in Hong Kong where regulators and market participants can engage in a direct dialogue about regulatory compliance. This year’s ACRU, held on 3 June 2015, drew a...
7 July, 2015
Broad-based employee share plans are increasingly popular in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Our profile candidate this month, Seth Bohart, Managing Director, Computershare Plan Managers Asia, looks at where this trend may take us in the years ahead. Thanks for giving...
7 July, 2015
A new report from CSR Asia warns companies that they may be indirectly involved in human rights infringement cases unknowingly through their supply chains. Richard Welford, Chairman, CSR Asia, recommends proper due diligence for businesses that want to be involved in...
7 July, 2015
Three years after its enactment, full implementation of Hong Kong’s Competition Ordinance is expected towards the end of this year. Mark Jephcott, Adelaide Luke and Lisa Geary at Herbert Smith Freehills Hong Kong, urge businesses to audit their existing...
7 July, 2015
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) proposes to amend the Securities and Futures Ordinance to boost the level of supervisory assistance the SFC can provide to overseas regulators. Over recent decades, international cooperation among national...
6 July, 2015
Question Time – ACRU 2015 review. Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
6 July, 2014
Compliance failures often stem from poor management and governance within companies rather than deliberate fraud. Regulators attending this year’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update therefore emphasised the importance of their supervisory role in fostering a...
6 July, 2014
Keeping pace with regulatory change is one of the top challenges facing compliance professionals and the Institute’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update seminar aims to help attendees do just that – providing them with an opportunity to get first-hand...
6 July, 2014
The Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) teamed up with the Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF) to publish the ‘Corporate Secretaries Toolkit’ earlier this year. This second part of our interview with Carina Wessels, CSIA President, and...
6 July, 2014
This second article in our series on the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries gives an introduction to the work of the Institute in the critical areas of professional standards, research and advocacy. What is the purpose of a professional body? Perhaps the...
6 July, 2014
The Competition Ordinance, which is expected to be implemented next year, presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges for company secretaries and compliance professionals in Hong Kong. Zoe Chan So Yuen FCS FCIS, Solicitor, argues that it is time for business...
6 July, 2014
This article describes the topics discussed in the HKICS 32nd Affiliated Persons ECPD seminars held in Nanning on 14-16 May 2014, including the amendment of connected transaction rules, the importance of managing inside information and the professional development of...
6 July, 2014
Building a compliance culture – ACRU 2014 review. Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
5 July, 2013
If your first contact with Hong Kong’s market regulators is a knock on the door from an investigation team, your engagement with them is already too late. Whether you think of them as shining white knights protecting Hong Kong’s market or, as one regulator...
5 July, 2013
Rules, conceded Charles Grieve, Senior Director of Corporate Finance, Securities and Futures Commission, at this year’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update (ACRU) seminar, will always be a fairly blunt instrument with which to encourage better corporate...
5 July, 2013
The Court of Final Appeal has confirmed that the Securities and Futures Commission can obtain wide-ranging relief under Section 213 of the Securities & Futures Ordinance (Cap 571) before and independent of any Market Misconduct Tribunal or criminal proceedings....
5 July, 2013
Mohan Datwani, the Institute’s Director of Technical and Research, gives his views of the Court of Final Appeal’s landmark decision in the Tiger Asia case. He argues that the practical outcome of the CFA decision is satisfying in that the market...
5 July, 2013
Statistics show that approximately one-third of hiring decisions are regretted. Alarmingly, these hiring mistakes can cost a company up to three times that employee’s annual salary. Therefore, it is no surprise that in addition to the traditional methods of...
5 July, 2013
The government is currently consulting on its latest proposals to reform Hong Kong’s corporate insolvency and winding-up regime. CSj interviewed the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau about the aims of these reform proposals. W hat are the aims of the new...
5 July, 2013
Q: When do you expect to see an RMB IPO in Hong Kong? A: There are two types of RMB IPO: 1. Dual tranche dual counter (DTDC) An issuer offers both RMB-traded shares and HKD- traded shares during the IPO, investors paying in RMB are allotted RMB-traded shares,...
5 July, 2013
Compliance update – ACRU 2013 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
7 July, 2012
One of the central themes of this year’s Annual Corporate and Regulatory Update seminar was that compliance, particularly in a principles-based regulatory regime, cannot be a box ticking exercise – companies, and the company secretaries advising them, need to...
7 July, 2012
Will company secretaries be personally liable for breaches of Hong Kong’s new statutory requirements for the disclosure of price-sensitive information? How should company secretaries prepare themselves for the abolition of par value shares? The pace of...
7 July, 2012
It is essential that organisations get out of a compliance mindset and start to communicate their financial story in the most effective and transparent way. This, argues Geraldine Magarey FCA, Manager, Sustainability and Regional Australia, Institute of Chartered...
7 July, 2012
Much effort has gone into ensuring that companies have channels for whistleblowers to report corporate misdemeanours, but what do you do when you receive a whistleblower tip-off? Colum Bancroft, Managing Director, Kroll Advisory Solutions, indicates some of the things...
7 July, 2012
Three Regional Board Secretary Panel meetings organised by the HKICS earlier this year in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing reviewed Hong Kong’s new statutory price-sensitive information (PSI) disclosure requirements and compared the PSI disclosure regimes of...
7 July, 2012
Q: We are looking to allocate excess rights shares, what are the issues we should consider? A: Rights issues have received media coverage recently, particularly some shareholder practices designed to increase the number of excess rights shares allocated to them....
7 July, 2012
The rule is… think for yourself Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
