Exclusive | Shell companies are bad for Hong Kong’s market reputation, SFC chairman says

Carlson Tong Ka-shing, chairman of Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) since October 2012, started out with a small accounting firm in Britain, earning just £10 per week, while training as a chartered accountant.

From humble beginnings, he rose to be KPMG Asia-Pacific chairman before retiring in 2011, handling big company audits and initial public offerings along the way. But before becoming the top enforcer for new listings in Hong Kong, Tong was warned by close friends not to take the job.

“The SFC is a regulator which does a lot of investigation. My friends warned me not to do it because this job may lead me to lose all my friends in the securities market,” he said in a recent interview with The Peak magazine, published by the South China Morning Post.

Nonetheless, he regards the job as a matter of civic duty. “I accepted the job because I wanted to achieve justice, to get rid of malpractice in the market and to improve market quality,” he said. “It is a tough job but someone needs to do it.”

Tong, together with SFC’s chief executive Ashley Alder, oversees a team of nearly 900 staff enforcing rules in the equities market place. Three decades of experience as an accountant have, he said, instilled the ability to separate friendship and business.

“I have no regrets accepting the role as the SFC chairman and I did not lose my friends either. My friends understand it is the job of the SFC to do the investigation in the market and that does not affect our friendship,” he said. It’s not an easy balancing act.