Mark Steward – a look at the record of a white collar crime fighter in Hong Kong's SFC

The Securities and Futures Commission’s white collar crime fighter Mark Steward is busy with farewell meetings in the business sector and media during his last few weeks at the commission, and it is time to review the man and what he has done for the Hong Kong market.

The outgoing executive director who will leave the commission next month has made a series of landmark enforcement and legal actions that were aimed at bringing an orderly market to the city and to protect the interest of shareholders.

Steward will take up a similar position with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority. The SFC has not yet named his successor but said the recruitment process has begun.

In announcing Steward’s resignation in June, SFC chief executive Ashley Alder said: "Mark has been instrumental in achieving great outcomes both for investors and for the market ... making the fullest use of all our powers, remedies and sanctions."

Steward is a lawyer from Australia who came to Hong Kong after working as deputy executive director of enforcement at the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. He has a law degree from Melbourne.

After he joined the SFC from September 2006, he used many of the new powers given to the SFC under the Securities and Futures Ordinance enacted in April 2003. The new law turned insider dealing into a crime and empowered the commission to seek court orders to compensate victims.

Here is a list of what Steward has done the past nine years: