AN amendment to the Banking Ordinance to remove the reciprocity requirement relating to banking applications from members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be gazetted tomorrow. The proposed change to the ordinance would enable Hong Kong to fulfil a commitment under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, a government spokesman said. Under the present rules, where a bank from abroad seeks a licence to operate in the territory, there must be an acceptable degree of reciprocity for Hong Kong banks wanting to do business in that particular country. The spokesman said the change would not have an adverse impact on the territory's banking authorisation system, because the reciprocity criterion was only one of the many authorisation criteria for vetting banking applications.
