THE surprising departure of Securities and Futures Commission chairman Robert Nottle provides yet another opportunity to review the extensive amount of work done by the SFC over the past five years to overhaul Hong Kong's regulatory system.
Mr Nottle was part of a senior management team that was handed the thankless task of bringing the territory's tarnished reputation back from the dead after the capital market nearly collapsed.
It was certainly not an easy task but it represented a golden opportunity for a group of experienced regulators in the prime of their careers to make a significant and lasting difference.
As a result, Hong Kong now sports a regulatory system comparable to major markets around the world, and the SFC deserves full credit for implementing changes on a market wary of any organisation imposing limits on business.
One of the things that made Mr Nottle somewhat of an enigma to the business media was his open disdain for the media.
After a lunch speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce last year, Mr Nottle bristled at being surrounded by newspaper reporters - a common practice in a media-saturated city - and tersely answered what he believed was a weak question.
