The following updates are examinable from 29 November 2023
TOPIC 1 – REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Material updated regarding Continuous Professional Training
- A licensed representative or relevant individual must complete 10 CPT hours per calendar year, irrespective of the number or type of regulated activities involved
- A responsible/executive officer must complete a minimum of 12 CPT hours per calendar year, with the 2 additional hours being related to regulatory compliance
- Each individual practitioner must complete at least 5 CPT hours per calendar year on topics directly relevant to the regulated activity he/she is involved in. Sponsors must not take less than 2.5 hours of sponsor-related CPT and TC Advisers/TCROs must complete at least 2.5 hours of relevant CPT
- No less than 2 CPT hours per calendar year must relate to ethics or compliance
- Each new individual practitioner in Hong Kong must complete 2 CPT hours on ethics within 12 months as a one-off requirement (not applicable to temporary lcensees)
TOPIC 2 – REQUIREMENTS OF RELEVANT SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
No updates
TOPIC 3 – MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION OF SECURITIES BUSINESS
Investor Identification Regime
Investor Identification
- An intermediary involved in trading on behalf of clients must assign to each client a unique and permanent Broker-to-Client Assigned Number (BCAN) and must keep up-to-date client identification data (CID) for each client
- For proprietary trading, “client” means the intermediary itself
- For a CIS or a discretionary account, “client” means the CIS, discretionary account holder or the asset management company that has opened the account
- For a joint account, the account itself should be assigned its own BCAN
- CID is the name and details of the identity document used for identity verification
- Client on-exchange orders must be accompanied by submission of BCAN and CID to the SEHK’s data repository in a “BCAN-CID Mapping File” as well as the unique central entity number (CE number) assigned to the intermediary by the SFC
- These requirements also apply to off-exchange orders that are reportable by SEHK exchange participants (OE Trade Reporting)
OTC Securities Transactions
- Whether as principal or agent, an intermediary involved in OTC transactions (not OE trading) must report OTC trades directly to the SFC – this is intended to improve OTC trade transparency using the SFC market oversight function
- Only transfers of ordinary shares and REIT units listed on the SEHK, that are subject to HK stamp duty, are subject to this requirement
- Information required to be submitted to the SFC within three trading days after the trade: intermediary’s CE number; details of securities traded; client CID; and the CE number of any other licensed intermediary involved in the trade
- Reporting obligation does not apply for share transfers to do with a structured product/derivative, or for conversion of a depository receipt into shares or vice versa
Client Data
- Individual clients must give prior consent to the use of their data
Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body supported by the membership of 36 jurisdictions (as at July 2023) and includes Hong Kong
- Primary purpose of FATF is to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal/regulatory/operational measures to combat money laundering/terrorist financing
- Hong Kong financial intermediaries, including virtual asset service (VAS) providers, must be familiar with FATF standards and how they relate to their day-to-day work
Virtual Assets
- Features of virtual assets giving rise to ML related risks:
- Ease of cross-border activity
- Speed at which multiple transactions can be executed
- Involvement of unregulated businesses in other jurisdictions
- Potential use of anonymity-enhancing services
TOPIC 4 – DEALING IN SECURITIES TRADED ON THE SEHK
Orion Trading Platform – Securities Market
- An Exchange Participant is required to subscribe to the Orion Central Gateway – Securities Market (OCG-C) session(s) and connect its Broker Supplied System (BSS) through OCG-C session(s) to OTP-C
- A BSS is a broker’s in-house developed system or a third-party software package developed by commercial vendors
Slight adjustments made to the Volatility Control Mechanism material:
- VCM aims to safeguard market integrity from extreme price volatility from trading incidents such as a “flash crash” and algorithm errors and provides a window allowing market participants to reassess their strategies
- A five-minute cooling-off period will be imposed for a particular stock/contract if the market price moves by more than the specified triggering thresholds from the last traded price 5 minutes before. Normal continuous trading will resume when the 5-minute cooling-off period ends
- A tiered structure of triggering thresholds at +/- 10%, +/-15% and +/-20% is applied to the Hang Seng Composite LargeCap, Hang Seng Composite MidCap and Hang Seng Composite SmallCap Indices constituent stocks respectively
- In the derivatives market, the VCM covers spot and next calendar month index futures contracts with:
- Hang Seng Index;
- Mini Hang Seng Index;
- Hang Seng China Enterprises Index;
- Mini-Hang Seng China Enterprises Index; or
- Hang Seng TECH Index
- VCM does not apply to the first 15 minutes of morning and afternoon continuous trading sessions and the last 15 minutes of the afternoon session nor during auction sessions
Updates to Transaction Costs:
Brokerage
- No minimum
- 1% of application money for IPOs
SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy
- Two levies charged by the SEHK on each purchase/sale of securities on behalf of SFC and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)
- SFC transaction levy of 0.0027%
- FRC transaction levy of 0.00015%
- An investor compensation levy of 0.002% was charged for the Investor Compensation Fund until December 2005 when it was suspended by the SFC as the Fund was full
Trading Fee
- 00565% charged to both buyer and seller and paid to SEHK
Trading Tariff
- HK$0.50 charged on each purchase/sale payable to SEHK
Stamp Duty on Stock Transaction
- 13% on each purchase/sale. No stamp duty on ETFs, derivative warrants and CBBCs trading
Transfer Deed Stamp Duty
- HK$5 charged to seller, irrespective of quantity traded
Transfer Fee
- Registrar of each listed company charges HK$2.50 per share certificate on buyers
TOPIC 5 – OTHER SECURITIES ACTIVITIES
- No updates
TOPIC 6 –EXCHANGE TRADED OPTIONS AND OVER-THE-COUNTER (OTC) DERIVATIVES
- No updates
TOPIC 7 –MARKET MISCONDUCT AND IMPROPER TRADING PRACTICES
- No updates
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