Adapting to new technology

Adapting to new technology

Continuing the CGj review of the Institute’s 13th Biennial Corporate Governance Conference, this article highlights the key takeaways from session two of the conference, offering insights into the risks and rewards of technological innovation. The remit for the...
Independent regulation

Independent regulation

Dr Kelvin Wong SBS JP, Chairman of the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC), talks to CGj about the goals of the AFRC as the independent regulator of the accounting profession in Hong Kong. Q: What was the primary purpose of launching Hong Kong’s new...
Changes to BVI company law

Changes to BVI company law

Leon Mao, Head of Advisory, Vistra North Asia, outlines 10 things that corporate governance professionals need to know about key changes to British Virgin Islands (BVI) company law and regulations. Recently, the BVI government enacted key changes to the jurisdiction’s...
CGj December 2022 (pdf version)

CGj December 2022 (pdf version)

Future Focus – CGC 2022 review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full edition....
Future focus

Future focus

As we are approaching the year end, CSj takes a look at the road ahead for governance professionals in the coming year and beyond. In 2021, the Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (the Institute) has been focusing its ECPD services and publications on a number of...
Cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication

Can we start with an introduction to your background and your passion for cross-cultural communication? ‘Around 30 years ago, I studied at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, which has been the training ground for Mainland diplomats since 1949. My major was...
Dawning of a new era

Dawning of a new era

Gabriela Kennedy, Partner, and Karen Lee, Counsel, Mayer Brown, highlight key aspects of the Mainland’s much anticipated Personal Information Protection Law. On 20 August 2021, the Mainland’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) was passed. The new law came into...
New guidance notes

New guidance notes

CSj reviews a two-part guidance note issued by the Technology Interest Group of the Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (the Institute), looking at the all-important issue of data protection in today’s highly data-dependent business environment. Good data...
Estate planning and probate

Estate planning and probate

Death and probate processes may be an unwelcome topic in Hong Kong, but Alex Chung, Associate, Withersworldwide, recommends some basic due diligence measures that can help streamline the probate process for both individuals and family businesses. The Covid-19 pandemic...
The Mainland unveils new draft data privacy law

The Mainland unveils new draft data privacy law

Hoi Tak Leung, Counsel, Digital Economy, and Patrick Phua, Practice Head, Asia Global Loans and Global Markets, Ashurst, outline some key points of the first draft of the Mainland’s Personal Information Protection Law. On 21 October 2020, the National People’s...
The Hong Kong Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance

The Hong Kong Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance

Xavier Garralda, Associate, Vistra Hong Kong; and Effie Vasilopoulos, Partner, and David Kalani Lee, Counsel, Sidley Austin, highlight the features of Hong Kong’s new Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance designed to boost Hong Kong’s standing as an asset management and...
Careers in Governance – Paul Stafford FCIS FCS

Careers in Governance – Paul Stafford FCIS FCS

What is your role as a governance professional? ‘I am the Corporation Secretary of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd and Regional Head of Corporate Governance for HSBC in Asia-Pacific.’ What was your career path to your current role? ‘I joined a...
Careers in Governance – Alan Au FCIS FCS

Careers in Governance – Alan Au FCIS FCS

What is your role as a governance professional? ‘As an educator, I guess my role is like a time traveller, bridging the past and the present and taking the present into the future. Please allow me to explain. What is knowledge, and in this particular context, business...
CSj December 2020 (pdf version)

CSj December 2020 (pdf version)

Back to basics – Reframing corporate purpose Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
The global future of governance

The global future of governance

In October this year, Edith Shih FCIS FCS(PE), International President, The Chartered Governance Institute, delivered the opening address of Governance New Zealand’s National Governance Conference. In this article, based on her speech, she looks at emerging trends in...
ESG: how economics drives change

ESG: how economics drives change

Pat Nie Woo, Partner, Business Reporting and Sustainability, KPMG China, argues that making improved environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance an economic necessity will be our path to a more sustainable future. With United Nations reports containing...
Double anniversary reflections

Double anniversary reflections

A cocktail reception to celebrate 70 years of The Chartered Governance Institute and 25 years of The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries in Hong Kong had to be cancelled last month. The three speakers lined up for the event share their reflections with this...
US-China trade war: responding to uncertainty

US-China trade war: responding to uncertainty

Colum Bancroft, Managing Director, AlixPartners, looks at the risks and compliance issues arising from market conditions resulting from the current US-China trade war. The US-China trade war has caught the world’s attention in recent months, and even more so recently...
CSj December 2019 (pdf version)

CSj December 2019 (pdf version)

Global governance – Emerging trends Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
Whistleblower protection in Hong Kong – opportunity lost?

Whistleblower protection in Hong Kong – opportunity lost?

Whistleblowing provides an effective early warning system to ensure that fraud does not go undetected. Cynthia Chung, Partner, Deacons, argues that Hong Kong companies need to have corporate whistleblower policies and programmes in place, backed up by a comprehensive...
Protecting human rights in Hong Kong – 2019 and  beyond

Protecting human rights in Hong Kong – 2019 and beyond

New legislation is expected in the coming year to better protect equality and eliminate discrimination in Hong Kong. Peter Reading, Legal Counsel, Equal Opportunities Commission, highlights this changing compliance environment and looks at the work that still needs to...
Directors’ duties

Directors’ duties

Mohan Datwani FCIS FCS(PE), the Institute’s Senior Director and Head of Technical & Research, looks at two recent decisions of the Listing Committee of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd that reiterate the importance of full compliance with the law in the...
Data ethics – new guidance

Data ethics – new guidance

A new report by the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data highlights the need for advanced data processing activities to follow ethical principles and be fair to all stakeholders. Advanced data processing activities, such as data analytics and artificial...
New  guidance notes

New guidance notes

Two additions to the Institute’s Interest Group guidance note series give advice on responding to investigations by regulators and public bodies, and on the complex considerations relevant to buyers and sellers in merger and acquisition transactions. In the three...
Casting the regulatory net over virtual assets

Casting the regulatory net over virtual assets

William Hallatt, Hannah Cassidy and Michael KS Tan, Herbert Smith Freehills, explore the Securities and Futures Commission’s new regulatory framework for virtual assets. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has published a statement (Statement), together with a...
CSj December 2018 (pdf version)

CSj December 2018 (pdf version)

Opportunity lost? Whistleblower protection in Hong Kong Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
AGM review 2017

AGM review 2017

Lucy Newcombe, Director, Global Corporate Communications, Computershare, takes us on a tour of the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) season, locally and internationally. After several years where shareholder activism has been the major point of change and contention...
Strategies for staying competitive

Strategies for staying competitive

CSj talks to HKSAR Financial Secretary Paul Mo-Po Chan GBM GBS JP FCIS FCS about his aspirations for maintaining Hong Kong’s competitive edge in the rapidly changing political, business and social environment, and about the role that professional practitioners such as...
Trends in ESG reporting: are you prepared?

Trends in ESG reporting: are you prepared?

John Sayer, Director, Carbon Care Asia, highlights the latest trends in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and offers advice on how to ensure you gain first-mover benefits rather than face the catch-up penalties of a laggard. It is clear that ESG...
ESG reporting – Connecting the disconnect for investors

ESG reporting – Connecting the disconnect for investors

Disclosing just performance metrics does not constitute effective environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. Dr Glenn Frommer and Theodora Thunder, Principals, Sustainability Partnership, give some practical advice on how companies can structure a connected...
Hacking risks related to internet trading

Hacking risks related to internet trading

Herbert Smith Freehills looks at the latest guidance from the Securities and Futures Commission which sets out minimum standards to enhance cybersecurity resilience and reduce and mitigate hacking risks related to internet trading. On 27 October 2017, the Securities...
CSj December 2017 (pdf version)

CSj December 2017 (pdf version)

2017 AGM season review Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full edition....
2016 AGM season review

2016 AGM season review

Lucy Newcombe, Director, Global Corporate Communications, Computershare, reports on another busy and intriguing AGM season around the globe. Hong Kong/China Five years may seem like a relatively short period of time in the grand scheme of things, a mere blip in the...
Know your investors

Know your investors

Cas Sydorowitz, Chief Executive Officer of Computershare’s proxy business in Europe, shares some advice on how companies in Asia can prepare themselves for the rising tide of shareholder activism in the region. Hong Kong-listed companies have a history of...
Demystifying shareholder engagement

Demystifying shareholder engagement

Christine Chow, Associate Director, Hermes EOS, Hermes Investment Management, answers questions on shareholder engagement raised by attendees at the recent HKICS Corporate Governance Conference 2016. At the 10th biennial Corporate Governance Conference (CGC 2016)...
Understanding competition

Understanding competition

A new HKICS guidance note suggests that, despite its reputation as a fiendishly complex and technical piece of legislation, Hong Kong’s new Competition Ordinance can be best understood with an appreciation of the nature of, and the benefits of, competition. Hong...
China's new Cybersecurity Law

China's new Cybersecurity Law

Gabriela Kennedy, Partner, and Xiaoyan Zhang, Counsel, Mayer Brown JSM, look at the implications of China’s newly passed Cybersecurity Law. On 7 November 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China passed the controversial...
Getting ready for the Competition Ordinance

Getting ready for the Competition Ordinance

Hong Kong’s competition law goes live this month, Stephen Crosswell, Partner, and Tom Jenkins, Senior Associate, Baker & McKenzie, ask – are you ready? It has been over three years since the enactment of the Competition Ordinance (Ordinance), passed with...
Connected transaction rules in plain language

Connected transaction rules in plain language

Daniel Wan, the co-author of the new HKICS guidance note on Hong Kong’s connected transaction rules, discusses the important role company secretaries can play in helping directors and managers understand Hong Kong’s complex connected transactions regime....
Addressing climate change in Hong Kong

Addressing climate change in Hong Kong

On 6 November this year, in preparation for the 2015 Paris climate change conference, the Environment Bureau released the Hong Kong Climate Change Report 2015. Jurgita Balaisyte, Project Manager, CSR Asia, discusses the measures outlined in the report to reduce Hong...
Too big to fail

Too big to fail

CSj highlights the key elements of the government’s proposed ‘resolution regime’ designed to ensure that regulatory authorities in Hong Kong have the tools necessary to intervene if a major, systemically important financial institution gets into...
Risk management and corporate governance

Risk management and corporate governance

The winning paper in the Institute’s latest Corporate Governance Paper Competition argues that risk management is an essential part of a healthy corporate governance framework. In this first part of their article, the authors focus on a comparison of the US and...
Inspection of documents by shareholders

Inspection of documents by shareholders

A recent decision by the Court of First Instance confirms the ability of minority shareholders to obtain an order for inspection of documents under Section 740 of the Companies Ordinance (Cap 622) to investigate into potential corporate mismanagement. The recent case...
CSj December 2015 (pdf version)

CSj December 2015 (pdf version)

Competition Ordinance – A wake-up call Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...

Know your Institute: Talking strategy

CSj interviews HKICS Chief Executive Samantha Suen FCIS FCS(PE) on her strategic goals for the HKICS. What are your aspirations as Chief Executive of the HKICS? ‘As Chief Executive of the HKICS, I help Council formulate strategies to develop the Institute and...
Know your Institute: the road ahead

Know your Institute: the road ahead

This ‘Know your Institute’ series of articles has tracked the evolution of the Chartered Secretarial profession in Hong Kong over the last 65 years and has sought to familiarise readers with the work of the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries in...
Competition compliance: in search of legal certainty

Competition compliance: in search of legal certainty

A new compliance challenge for company secretaries in Hong Kong is just around the corner with the Competition Ordinance due to be implemented next year. Our In Profile candidate this month, Clara Ingen-Housz, Partner, Linklaters, helps to clarify some of the...
The long arm of US law: implications for Hong Kong companies

The long arm of US law: implications for Hong Kong companies

Hong Kong companies, even where they have little connection with the US, may need to consider the long arm of US law in their compliance programmes, argue Kyle Wombolt, Global Head of Corporate Crime and Investigations, and Siyu Zhang, Associate, Herbert Smith...
Changing rules, changing roles – managing it all

Changing rules, changing roles – managing it all

The winning paper in this year’s Corporate Governance Paper Competition examines the recent changes brought in by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) to corporate governance requirements to raise the overall standard of issuers’ corporate governance, and...
Cybersecurity and the evolving role of boards

Cybersecurity and the evolving role of boards

At a time when the theft of customer information often leads to executive level shake-ups, boards are taking a greater role in evaluating the adequacy of their organisations’ cybersecurity. Many boards, however, have yet to apply the same level of critical observation...

Ask the Expert December 2014

Q: Can we use our board portal to assist us with our board evaluation process? A: Most organisations have reviews in which board members are asked to rate their individual performance as well as the perceived effectiveness of the entire board. Many companies also...
CSj December 2014 (pdf version)

CSj December 2014 (pdf version)

Know your Institute – The road ahead. Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
AML / CTF compliance – Why it pays to pay attention

AML / CTF compliance – Why it pays to pay attention

The payment by HSBC of a US$1.9 billion fine in December 2012 to settle a money-laundering and terrorist-financing charge by US authorities has been a high-profile reminder of the need to keep anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/ CTF) compliance...
Does more disclosure mean better governance?

Does more disclosure mean better governance?

The Institute’s Corporate Governance Paper Competition is held annually to raise awareness of corporate governance issues among local undergraduates. This year’s competition was held on the theme ‘Corporate governance means more reports and...
Competition Ordinance: guidance for company secretaries

Competition Ordinance: guidance for company secretaries

The Competition Ordinance, which is likely to be fully implemented in 2015, will have significant compliance implications for company secretaries in Hong Kong. A new HKICS guidance note on the ordinance seeks to familiarise HKICS members with the main provisions of...
Valuing intangibles and ESG performance

Valuing intangibles and ESG performance

Few would dispute the importance of intangible factors such as a company’s brand, its networks, its people and its capacity for innovation, but intangibles are, by definition, not easy to quantify. Josh Dowse, Principal, DowseCSP, introduces a new approach to...
Women and the world economy 女性和世界经济

Women and the world economy 女性和世界经济

A new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report finds that progress toward levelling the playing field for women in the workforce has stalled. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, outlines some of the many benefits of allowing women to develop their full...
CSj December 2013 (pdf version)

CSj December 2013 (pdf version)

Anti-money laundering – Why it pays to pay attention Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...
Board evaluation – The outside view

Board evaluation – The outside view

Some boards are still reluctant to commission an externally-facilitated board evaluation. Based on his substantial experience with ICSA Board Evaluation, Simon Osborne FCIS, Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), points...
Corporate governance in mainland China  中國公司治理發展

Corporate governance in mainland China 中國公司治理發展

CSj talks to one of mainland China’s most respected corporate governance experts, Professor Li Weian, President of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, about what kind of corporate governance culture will emerge in mainland China in the years ahead With...
The 21st-century board – Recommendations on board effectiveness

The 21st-century board – Recommendations on board effectiveness

The Institute’s corporate governance paper competition is run biennially in tandem with the Institute’s corporate governance conferences. This month, CSj publishes the second and final part of the winning paper in this year’s competition which, like...

Ask the Expert December 2012

Q: As an international company our executives are based in offices around the world. We are considering moving to an online board portal, but there are differences of opinion. How can I, as the company secretary, demonstrate the advantages for board members in terms...
CSj December 2012 (pdf version)

CSj December 2012 (pdf version)

Board evaluation – Asking the right questions. Click here or on the cover image below to view or download a pdf of the full...