Guideline on supervision of regulated activities of SFC-registered authorized institutions

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has today (Friday) issued a statutory guideline on its approach to supervising the regulated activities of authorized institutions (AIs) that are registered with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO).

To uphold one of the primary objectives of the SFO of maintaining a level playing field for all securities intermediaries, the guideline sets out clearly that the HKMA will remain the front-line supervisor of registered AIs, which are required to comply with standards equivalent to those applied by the SFC to licensed securities brokers in relation to their regulated activities. These arrangements, enshrined in the legal framework of the SFO, are also underpinned by a new Memorandum of Understanding between the HKMA and the SFC, which was signed on 12 December 2002.

Registered AIs are expected to take appropriate measures to ensure compliance with this guideline upon commencement of the new supervisory regime on 1 April 2003. "The HKMA will monitor compliance of registered AIs with the new requirements under the SFO during its normal course of prudential supervision, as well as through on-site examinations conducted by specialised examination teams of the HKMA," said Mr Y K Choi, Acting Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA.

In addition to this statutory guideline, the HKMA has also issued a series of circulars since the second half of 2002 to assist AIs in preparing themselves for the implementation of the new regime.

The guideline is now available at the HKMA's website http://www.hkma.gov.hk.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 March 2003