News Headlines
[Mainland China] China sentences former senior ICBC
banker to life for bribery
Business Times, 12 Aug 2021
China
sentenced Gu Guoming, a former senior banker at Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China (ICBC), to life in jail after being found guilty of bribery, according
to the verdict given by the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court. Gu was
being convicted of taking about US$21 million in bribes from 2005 to 2019 and
accused of taking advantage of his various positions at ICBC to seek favours
for others, and assisted some individuals and companies to obtain bank credit
and investments.
Full
text: click here
[Hong
Kong] HKEX to introduce options on futures contracts
HKEX
News, 12 Aug 2021
HKEX
announced the launch of physically settled Options on Futures Contracts (OOF)
on Hang Seng Index Futures and Hang Seng China Enterprises Index Futures. These
new OOF will be introduced on 23 August 2021 and will offer investors a suite
of new trading and risk management tools. Investors holding OOF will have the
opportunity to take a futures position on HKEX’s markets prior to the
settlement of the underlying futures contract.
Full
text: click here
[Hong Kong] China's
anti-sanctions law a new headache for banks in Hong Kong
Business Times, 12 Aug
2021
China's plan to expand its anti-sanctions
law into Hong Kong is a fresh compliance headache for international banks
already caught up in deteriorating relations between Beijing and major western
powers, analysts and insiders say. In June, China passed a broad anti-sanctions
law in response to US and European punishments sparked by Beijing's treatment
of Hong Kong and its Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. Its powers include
denying visas, deportation, or seizing assets of those who formulate or comply
with sanctions against Chinese businesses or officials. Foreign companies can
be sued in Chinese courts for applying sanctions and the law can also be
wielded against family members. Then earlier this week Hong Kong's chief
executive Carrie Lam confirmed the anti-sanctions law would soon be applied in
the financial hub in some form.
Full text: click here
[Hong Kong] SFC and ICAC
joint operation on listed company’s suspicious money lending activities
SFC Enforcement News, 13
Aug 2021
Five individuals including a current senior executive and a former
senior executive of a listed company have been arrested in a joint operation
“Jade Qilin” of the SFC and the ICAC. The SFC conducted the search on suspicion
of breaches of the Securities and Futures Ordinance in relation to the
suspicious money lending activities of the listed company; in this connection,
the management might have engaged in misfeasance or other misconduct
prejudicial to the listed company or its shareholders. The ICAC conducted the search and made the
arrests for suspected corruption offences under the Prevention of Bribery
Ordinance.
Full text: click here
[Singapore] Singapore's shift to Sora from
Libor quickens as contracts jump fourfold
Straits Times, 13 Aug 2021
Banks in Singapore are embracing a new benchmark for derivatives
transactions as the financial hub prepares to transition away from the London Inter-Bank
Offered Rate (Libor) by the end of September.
Full text: click here
Articles/ Publications
Malaysia
launches reform of government-linked investment companies
Asia
Asset Management News, 16 Aug 2021
Malaysia has
launched a programme to reform eight government-linked investment companies or
GLICs, including the country’s two largest pension funds, by splitting them
into a sovereign wealth fund category and an institutional investor category.
Full text: click here
