TOUGH times call for radical solutions. Hong Kong's finance industry has learned how to play the game, cut corners and generally come out on top.
The urgency is especially acute this time around. While down-scaling has taken on a ritual quality, the next bonus round is coming up for some of the big players, such as S. G. Warburg.
Operating with huge cost structures built up in the 1993 bull market, brokerages have been forced to employ every trick in the book just to keep commissions flowing.
Of course, the pie has shrunk with daily exchange turnover down to an average of $3 billion. But the lack of business has thrown up a variety of solutions.
Barings staff, newly back on the bourse after what a London grandee might have called the 'recent unpleasantness', have stuck with their trading instincts, and were heard to be touting Rugby Sevens tickets for as much as $2,000 a throw last week.
Although every little helps, the firms themselves have been forced to look further afield in pushing for market share. Hong Kong is a place for volume-operators, since the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's fixed 0.25 commission is low by regional standards.
