Jersey And Hong Kong Regulators Pledge Closer Cooperation

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

14 September 2005

The Jersey Financial Services Commission and Hong Kong’s securities and futures market regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, have signed a Letter of Intent which provides a framework for enhanced cooperation between the two regulatory authorities.

The Letter of Intent will provide a formal basis for both regulators to work towards several goals, including:

• equivalence of regulatory frameworks in place in each jurisdiction in the areas of regulation, supervision and marketing of investment products;
• the mutual recognition of investment products; and
• further strengthening of regulatory cooperation and assistance in matters pertaining to cross-border supervision of fund management activities.

The authorities have agreed to establish a bilateral working group to work towards the achievement of objectives set out in the Letter of Intent.

Both the Commission and the SFC are members of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and signatories of the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding. The Letter of Intent is signed in the spirit of mutual cooperation between securities regulators fostered by IOSCO.

David Carse, Director General of the Commission noted that:

“I am delighted to sign this Letter of Intent with the Hong Kong SFC. The Commission considers that co-operation under the Letter will facilitate access to Hong Kong’s markets for Jersey investment products, and also help to develop the range of products that are available for distribution in Jersey. It will also provide a more formal basis for exchanging views with an important Asian supervisor on matters of common interest.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Sheng, Chairman of the SFC added that:

“The SFC is committed to facilitating the development of deeper and broader investment markets globally. We are delighted to sign this Letter of Intent with the Jersey Financial Services Commission, our second non-Asian partner in this endeavour. Jersey is strategically located and plays an important role in the European investment products market, and therefore ideally placed to explore with the SFC the means of achieving cross-border distribution of investment products between our respective markets to our mutual benefit.”

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