Hong Kong’s investment banking sector is set to
change forever with an industry-wide standardisation of
pre-deal research processes, IFLR can reveal.
The move is being orchestrated
by a specially-formed consortium of 20 of the
city’s largest investment banks including Goldman
Sachs, Credit Suisse, HSBC, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill
Lynch, UBS and Citi
. It will include the introduction of industry-standard
documentation as well as best practice guidelines governing
interaction among all parties to an offering, including issuer
companies, counsels and research analysts.
It will come into effect on October 31 in conjunction with the
introduction, by Hong Kong’s Securities and
Futures Commission (SFC), of
new pre-deal research rules which will further expand the scope
of conflicts-of-interest requirements governing analyst conduct
when preparing investment research reports.
One Hong Kong general counsel close to the matter told IFLR
the introduction of new rules had provided the sector
with...