Hong Kong’s SFC boss Ashley Alder opts to stay on three more years, citing coronavirus pandemic

Alder had said he would leave in September after nine years as chief executive of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission

The former lawyer said he wants to shepherd the city’s financial system through the coronavirus pandemic, as the economy tanks

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Ashley Alder signs on for three more years. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:57pm, 18 May 2020Updated: 8:45am, 19 May 2020

Ashley Alder, chief executive of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, has decided to stay in post for three more years to shepherd the city’s financial system through the coronavirus pandemic.

He was due to step down in September after serving at the regulator for nine years.

Alder said in a statement on Monday that he wanted to “ensure that the financial system functions reliably and with integrity throughout a period of exceptional stress.”

Hong Kong’s economy suffered its worst decline on record, shrinking 8.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter, battered by the coronavirus pandemic and months of anti-government protests. “Our economic situation is very challenging. We are in deep recession,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said earlier this month.

His decision means there will be continuity at the top of the city’s securities watchdog even as Charles Li, one of the longest-serving chief executives of a global financial marketplace, has thrown in the towel after more than a decade as head of the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX), in a surprise announcement to let his contract lapse in October 2021.

Alder sees the challenge ahead as making sure investors remain confident that Hong Kong’s financial regulations are fit for purpose in what will be a vastly different international financial landscape once the coronavirus pandemic abates.