The government has promoted Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, currently an executive director at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, to head its local banking regulation division starting in January.
Mr Yuen will become a deputy chief executive of the HKMA, replacing Choi Yiu-kwan, who will retire at the end of this year.
In effect, Mr Yuen will be the new right-hand man to Norman Chan Tak-lam, who will replace HKMA chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong when he retires on October 1.
Bankers and analysts said Mr Yuen was chosen because of his strong regulatory background in the securities market, especially important as the HKMA begins to tighten regulations on banks' securities operations after the Lehman Brothers minibond fiasco.
More than 20,000 investors complained they were misled by banks into buying the structured products issued or guaranteed by Lehman. These products became almost worthless when the United States investment bank collapsed in September last year.
This prompted the HKMA to impose a range of measures to tighten regulation on how banks sell their securities business.
Mr Yuen is a former administrative officer and was principal assistant secretary for the Financial Services Branch in the early 1990s handling securities market regulation. He was a senior manager at the Securities and Futures Commission for two years before he joined the HKMA as a division head in 1996. He was promoted to his current post in 2004.
