Hong Kong aims to cement its reputation as an international finance centre and fund domicile with today’s launch of the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC).
The council will advise the government on ways to help promote the jurisdiction’s financial services industry, according to a statement from BlackRock, whose Asia Pacific chairman, Mark McCombe, was appointed a non-official member for a term of two years.
Laura Cha will chair the FSDC, which will have the secretary for Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury, K C Chan, as well as 20 non-official members. These will be drawn from a variety of financial disciplines including: asset management, banking, equities and insurance, academics and professional services, according to the BlackRock statement.
In the statement McCombe said that he looks forward to working with the FSDC to raise industry standards and promoting the island as a financial centre.
The council was announced by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive CY Leung at the 6th Asian Financial Forum earlier this week.
According to local press Leung said the council would not only cement the jurisdiction’s reputation as an international finance centre but would also boost its financial cooperation with the Chinese mainland.
This is not the first move that Hong Kong has made in developing international relations with the financial industry. At the end of last year delegates at the PE Asia CFO & COO Conference in Hong Kong signalled that the jurisdiction’s regulators were trying to “protect its reputation” with tough securities enforcement.
“Hong Kong realises that it must take the lead in giving confidence to investors that this is a good jurisdiction,” said Kapil Kirpalani, legal counsel at Ortus Capital Management, at the time.
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