The Securities and Futures Commission has eased restrictions on the appointment by local fund houses of overseas investment managers, in part to satisfy the needs of mainland investors who can now use the city as a conduit for exposure to the rest of the world.
The move was widely welcomed by local fund managers, who said the new rules would help Hong Kong compete against Singapore as the leading fund management centre in Asia.
The new guidelines issued yesterday relax the current restriction on fund companies to overseas investment managers only from Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Britain and the United States. Now firms can hire managers from any market as long as they are licensed by their home regulator and under on-going supervision and control.
The commission will approve these appointments on a case-by-case basis.
'The qualified domestic institutional investors scheme allows mainlanders to invest in Hong Kong SFC-authorised fund products. We must ensure there are sufficient fund choices for them,' said SFC executive director Alexa Lam.
The commission has already used this approach to approve fund managers from Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands and Singapore.