Hong Kong to host world’s central bankers next week for Basel committee meetings as city shows it is ‘back to normal’

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision will hold closed-door meetings ahead of the the HKMA-BIS Joint Conference
‘We can show the world that Hong Kong is fully back to normal,’ says Arthur Yuen, deputy CEO of the HKMA

Banking & finance

Enoch Yiu

Published: 8:30am, 13 Mar 2023

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Central bankers and regulators from Spain, England, Japan, Singapore and mainland China will be among the financial heavyweights coming to Hong Kong next week, as the city hosts another event to mark its re-emergence onto the world stage after three years of Covid-19 restrictions.

Pablo Hernández de Cos, governor of the Bank of Spain, and Victoria Saporta, executive director of the Bank of England, will be among the 45 members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision convening in Hong Kong, according to Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, deputy CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

De Cos is also chairman of the committee, which is an international banking standards setter under the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The first two days, March 22 and 23, will consist of closed-door meetings.

Then, on March 24, many of the members will head to the HKMA-BIS Joint Conference at the luxury Rosewood Hong Kong hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. This will also be attended by local bankers and will be live-streamed to the public, Yuen said.

HKMA deputy CEO Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang photographed at HKMA in Central on 10 March 2023. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

HKMA boss Eddie Yue Wai-man will deliver welcoming remarks while his predecessor, Norman Chan Tak-lam, will give a keynote speech. Other speakers are still to be confirmed.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) – both members of the committee – will send senior executives to attend the two-day summit but not as speakers at the joint conference.

“The HKMA-BIS Joint Conference will be the first major financial event to be held after the border fully reopened and all Covid restrictions in Hong Kong were removed, including the axing of the mask mandate from March 1,” Yuen told the Post. “We can show the world that Hong Kong is fully back to normal.”

The agenda of the Basel Committee is not disclosed, while the HKMA-BIS Joint Conference will focus on how regulatory authorities and banks are preparing in a constantly evolving financial landscape, and discuss topics related to cryptocurrency development, Yuen said.

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Hong Kong’s financial summit ends on an upbeat note as city heads ‘back to business’

Headquartered in the offices of the BIS in Basel, Switzerland, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision was formed in 1974 by central bankers from the G10 countries. After the global financial crisis in 2009, it expanded its membership to 45 central bankers and regulatory heads from 28 jurisdictions, including the HKMA.

Yuen, who represents Hong Kong’s de facto central bank on the committee, has been actively involved in setting standards for banking liquidity and risk management requirements over the past 14 years.

“Climate change, green finance and cryptocurrencies are the current topics concerning the committee,” he said.

BIS, known as a “bank for the central banks”, was founded in 1930 with 63 shareholding central banks. Its mission is to serve central banks in their pursuit of monetary, financial stability and international cooperation.

Taken together, the committee meetings and the joint conference next week are the first of three major events the HKMA is hoping to host this year to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The last time the Basel committee met in Hong Kong was in 2013 at the HKMA’s 20th anniversary.

The other two events, Yuen said, are the 2023 Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in November and the annual governors’ meeting of the BIS in the second half of the year – something the HKMA is currently negotiating with the BIS.

The series of events comes after the success of the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in November last year when the city started to relax its Covid-19 restriction before it fully reopened international borders in January.