Hong Kong Securities And Futures Commission Consults Further On Proposed Amendments For Implementing An Uncertificated Securities Market

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today launched a further consultation on implementing an uncertificated securities market (USM) in Hong Kong.

The latest consultation invites views on proposed amendments to (i) the Code of Conduct for Share Registrars (to be renamed the Code of Conduct for Approved Securities Registrars), and (ii) the Guidelines for Electronic Public Offerings (to be renamed Guidelines for Electronic Public Offers). The amendments relate to the regulation of approved securities registrars under the USM environment. The consultation also covers further amendments to the Stamp Duty Ordinance (Note 1).

The latest consultation follows the SFC’s earlier consultation in March 2023 on proposed subsidiary legislation for implementing a USM (Note 2).

Interested parties are invited to submit their comments to the SFC on or before 15 December 2023 via the SFC website (www.sfc.hk), by email (usmconsult@sfc.hk), by post or by fax (2521 7917).

Notes:

1. The proposed amendments make further changes to the arrangements for stamping and collecting stamp duty in the USM environment.
2. In 2019 and 2020, the SFC, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and the Federation of Share Registrars Limited jointly consulted the market on an operational model to implement USM in Hong Kong. In June 2021, the Securities and Futures and Companies Legislation (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 was enacted to put in place a broad framework to implement the model. This framework was to be expanded through subsidiary legislation and the SFC’s codes and guidelines. In March 2023, the SFC consulted on the proposed subsidiary legislation. The current consultation focuses on codes and guidelines.