HKEx Director Slams Exchange Over Regulation Of Listings

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

03 February 2004

In a recent submission to the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) director and corporate reformer, David Webb criticised the Exchange's proposals for the regulation of listings.

Following a governmental climbdown last year over handing responsibility for the listing function over to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Mr Webb suggested that the authorities had bent to pressure "from vested interests who are heavily represented among its 800 member electorate".

Condemning HKEx's suggestion that the current problems with the system do not result from the content of the listing rules as unrealistic, given the number of consultations launched with a view to reforming the rules, he observed that:

"Unfortunately, many of these reform proposals have subsequently died a quiet death under pressure from vested interests."

The HKEx director also took issue with the exchange's assertion that the Listing Committee is a balanced entity, arguing that:

"There is in fact no balance, but a complete imbalance in which only two out of the 25 members of the main board Listing Committee are investor-based."

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