Hong Kong SFC Welcomes New Listing Regulation Reforms

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

23 April 2004

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has welcomed the new proposals put forward by the Hong Kong government on reform of listings regulation, following the completion of a recent consultation exercise.

The first phase of the reform includes giving statutory backing to listing requirements on financial reporting and other periodic disclosure, disclosure of price sensitive information, and shareholders’ approval for notifiable transactions.

In the second phase, the Government, the SFC and the Hong Kong Exchange will review the extension of these statutory provisions to cover other listing requirements.

Also, the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) is to be expanded so that market misconduct will cover breaches of the statutory listing rules allowing criminal sanctions to be imposed on offenders.

Additionally, further changes to the SFO will mean that the Commission can can impose direct civil sanctions, namely reprimands and disqualification orders, on issuers, directors and corporate officers, for breaches.

The SFC will be responsible for enforcing the statutory listing requirements and HKEx will continue to receive listing applications at the frontline.

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