HKEx tables procedural fix

Inundated stock exchange wants to streamline its policy-making apparatus

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing wants to appoint at least eight investor representatives to a new policy-making panel as part of a major overhaul of the listing committee.

The proposal, included in a public consultation paper to be released on Monday, aims to streamline administrative procedures at a time when the exchange is receiving a prolific number of listing applications.

Herbert Hui Ho-ming, chairman of Hong Kong Institute of Directors, said: 'It's timely to consider the listing committee's composition because of the changes to the market in the past few years.'

The issue being studied is the replacement of the existing listing committee with five panels covering policy decisions, reviews, adjudication and disciplinary matters.

A highlight of the changes involves the listing policy panel, which will comprise up to 28 members, including a chairman and two deputies, HKEx chief executive Paul Chow Man-yiu and the eight or more investor representatives.

The panel will advise on and approve disciplinary measures, rule amendments and significant rule waivers and modifications.

Identifying significant first instance listing applications and making delisting decisions will be the principal tasks of the listing decision panel.

Members of this panel will be drawn from the listing policy panel, excluding its chairman and deputies.

Procedures for reviewing non-disciplinary matters will be simplified, with the review panel being the sole decision-making body. At present, many cases require two stages of review.

To simplify oversight, HKEx suggests that its board delegates certain decision-making powers to the listing division.

HKEx does not think this will result in conflicts of interest as the most important non-disciplinary decisions made by the decision panel will be reviewed by the review panel. And the policy panel will assume a central role in formulating and approving policy.