Streamlined Approach for Handling Transactions for SPIs On 28th July 2023, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA“) and the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC“) issued a joint circular in response to queries and feedback received by both regulatory authorities in...

A New Framework for Single Family Offices in Singapore On 31st July 2023, Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) issued a Consultation Paper proposing a new regulatory framework for Single Family Offices (“SFOs”) in response to the growing trend of...

Type 13 – Licensing and Registration of Depositories of SFC-authorised CISs On 27th July 2023, the SFC published the ‘Circular on licensing and registration of depositaries of SFC-authorised collective investment schemes and related transitional arrangements’.    This circular is a...

Compliance Best Practices for Virtual Asset Fund Managers in Hong Kong “Virtual assets” means digital representations of value which may be in the form of digital tokens (such as digital currencies, utility tokens, stablecoins or security- or asset-backed tokens), any...

Do Hong Kong Private Equity Firms Need to be Licensed with the SFC? The short answer is, in most cases, yes.  In the majority of cases (bar a few exceptions which are outlined in our article), companies (and indeed their...

ESG Requirements for Fund and Asset Managers in Hong Kong and Singapore ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is a set of criteria that refers to the assessment of a company’s performance with regards to a range of socially desirable objectives....

SFC’s Rules on Instant Messaging In recent years, instant messaging (“IM”) has become a popular mode of communication, due to advantages such as the real-time transmission of messages over a network, free cost, prevalence of social media applications, and special...

Upcoming Changes in the SFC’s Business Risk Management Questionnaire (BRMQ) The Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC” or “the Commission”) recognizes the need for continuous improvement in compliance practices.  As a result, on 23rd December 2022, the Commission announced forthcoming changes...

Understanding Hong Kong’s New Precious Metals Regulatory Regime To comply with its obligations under the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF“) and further strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (“AML/CTF“) efforts, in June 2022, Hong Kong introduced a new registration...