Rogue stock investors have no place to hide, says Hong Kong's market regulator Mark Steward

Stock-market manipulators who think they can exploit gaps in cross-border regulation will find there is "no place to hide", the outgoing enforcement chief of the Securities and Futures Commission has warned.

Mark Steward, who steps down next month after leading the SFC's enforcement division for nine years, said closer cooperation between regulators on each side of the border would prevent miscreants taking refuge.

His comments yesterday come at a time of heightened concern about extreme market fluctuations and unusual trading patterns in Hong Kong-listed companies that have major shareholders from the mainland.

Steward, 52, said significant progress had been made in the collaboration between the SFC and its mainland counterpart, the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

"Anyone who thinks the mainland provides some sort of refuge for wrongdoing in Hong Kong has not looked carefully at the results … we have achieved with the CSRC. The border … is no safe place and our record demonstrates that," he said.

"The real point to the way in which our collaboration has developed is that both sides recognise it is necessary and important. We both want to send the message to wrongdoers that they can't assume we are dislocated or that there is some arbitrage that can be exploited so that wrongdoing does not get detected or picked up. The message is: no place to hide."

Earlier this year, the two regulators signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation following the launch of a stock connect scheme linking the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets in April.