Letters | Accounting regulatory overhaul will sharpen Hong Kong’s competitive edge
- The proposed bill would bring Hong Kong in line with international practice and increase the accounting profession’s accountability and transparency, and public confidence in it
Firstly and most importantly, special attention must be paid to the transitional stage when most of the investigative and disciplinary functions of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants are subsumed under the AFRC. A working group should be set up between the institute and the AFRC to ensure the transition is smooth and seamless.
Second, the government must give the AFRC sufficient resources to discharge its statutory functions independently.
Third, the AFRC’s regulatory approach must be to raise the standards of the profession and protect the public interest. The profession should not be placed in a more onerous and hostile regulatory environment than before. The approach or regulatory culture cannot be spelt out or guaranteed in the provisions of the bill. But ensuring the quality of the AFRC’s frontline staff and maintaining a constant and open dialogue with the members of the profession will ease much doubt and concern.
Lastly, given that Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu once suggested that the bill was a mere moving of regulatory functions from the institute to the AFRC, I hope the vast experience of the institute’s staff is favourably taken into account when the AFRC recruits staff for its expanded functions.