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Enoch Yiu

The long-serving deputy head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is quitting to take a career break.

Norman Chan Tak-lam's announcement that he is leaving his $6 million-a-year post to study macroeconomics in the United States shocked the financial sector.

Brokers and bankers were quick to speculate the real reason for what he called a 'mid-life sabbatical' was that he would take over from Andrew Sheng as head of the Securities and Futures Commission.

He has already filled Mr Sheng's shoes once, taking on his role in charge of reserve management when the SFC boss left the HKMA in 1997 to take up his current job.

Mr Sheng has shown no sign he will renew his contract, which runs out in September.

But Mr Chan appeared to rule out succeeding him a second time, saying yesterday: 'It is absolutely impossible for me to take up the SFC post, as my school term will begin in September.'

He also said it was unlikely he would return to government or the public sector.

Mr Chan, 50, has been right-hand man to monetary authority chief Joseph Yam Chi-kwong for 14 years and was widely seen as his heir apparent. Mr Yam called his departure a 'personal loss'.

Mr Chan stressed he was not retiring.

'If I were  waiting to succeed Mr Yam, I should stay on, but that would mean a career without punctuation. I want to have a life with punctuation,' he said.

'The nine-month break is not going to put a full stop to my career. It is only going to give me a mid-life sabbatical to think about my future.'

The Boxing Day tsunami had also influenced his thinking.

'Most people are working until retirement at 60. But I have witnessed many of my friends retire at that age only to find that their bodies are no longer fit for hiking or travelling,' he said. 'I think 50 is a better age to seek a change of life.'

He isn't ruling out a job in the private sector after his nine-month stint of studying - he wouldn't say where - but may also consider part-time or voluntary work.

Mr Chan joined the Hong Kong civil service in 1976. His wife, Diana Chan Tong Chee-ching, is managing director of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority.

Mr Chan said the most unforgettable events of his 30-year career were carrying out the $118 billion stock-market intervention in 1998 to fend off speculators and the subsequent disposal of the shares through the creation of the Tracker Fund.



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Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Joseph Yam's deputy resigns to take 'mid-life sabbatical' in the US