As the industry debates the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s consultation paper on structured finance, the regulator has been reassuring lawyers, banks and corporates that it will be more measured than the rest of the world.
Speaking at an industry conference on Tuesday, Martin Wheatley, CEO of the SFC, was keen to emphasise that these changes would not be a knee-jerk reaction – as witnessed in other jurisdictions.
Explicitly criticising the decision by several jurisdictions to ban all short selling as a “mistake” and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive as “put together in haste, effectively creating fortress Europe”, the regulator argued for balanced regulation, implemented appropriately.
“We don’t want such an extreme reaction that it’s impossible to create and sell products,” Wheatley said. “Our objective is to have a market in Hong Kong that protects investors and continues to be active,...