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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Treasury Markets Summit 2012, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Treasury Markets Association (TMA), was held today (October 12) in Hong Kong.
In his keynote address to the Summit, the Chief Executive of the HKMA, Mr Norman Chan, highlighted the power of the "3Cs" Competence, Control and Culture in building a successful and competitive world-class international financial centre (IFC). Mr Chan believed that the "3Cs" are the key elements of the soft power of Hong Kong's financial market and that the race to become an IFC is in fact a "battle of soft power".
Mr Chan highlighted particularly the importance of Culture. He contended that while it is essential to have professional competence and good control in the context of building a financial services sector that befits a world-class IFC, it is equally, if not more, important that financial institutions and their practitioners uphold the right values that protect and serve the interests of their customers. "An IFC also represents a brand, a quality that customers trust in terms of efficiency, reliability and integrity. It takes decades or even centuries to build a brand, but only days to destroy it if any of the qualities of competence, control or culture are eroded," said Mr Chan.
To strengthen Hong Kong's soft power, in particular its 3Cs, Mr Chan said that regulators, the financial industry and individual financial institutions should each do their own part and contribute together to the maintenance of Hong Kong's status as a world-class IFC. For instance, in a bid to uphold competence and professionalism of private bankers and wealth managers, the HKMA is working with the Securities and Futures Commission and the industry to revamp and formalise the professional qualifications and training for private banking and wealth management practitioners, similar to what the TMA did in establishing a professional qualifications and training framework for treasury markets practitioners in 2011. To promote the importance of control and governance of banks, the HKMA has also started to conduct face-to-face meetings with individuals nominated to be bank directors and chief executives.
During the Summit, speakers and participants also discussed the role of the treasury markets in the development of Hong Kong's offshore RMB business, the new trends in Hong Kong's asset management business, and professionalism and ethical standards of treasury-market practitioners.
Other speakers at the Summit include Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA and Chairman of the TMA Executive Board, Mr Peter Pang; Managing Director and Head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Asia Pacific, Mr Oliver Bolitho; Secretary to the New York Foreign Exchange Committee, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Mrs Jamie Pfeifer; and Associate Dean of Business and Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Professor Kalok Chan.
The Summit was attended by over 300 participants, including representatives from regulatory authorities, treasury markets practitioners, and senior executives and professionals from banks and other financial institutions from different geographic locations.
Ends/Friday, October 12, 2012
Issued at HKT 20:10
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