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The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) welcomes the enactment of the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 (Amendment Ordinance).
Under the Amendment Ordinance, which will be gazetted tomorrow, the SFC is empowered to implement the following new regulatory initiatives:
- The establishment of a statutory disclosure regime whereby listed corporations will be required to disclose price sensitive information (PSI) in a timely manner, backed by civil sanctions for non-disclosure of PSI;
- The SFC can directly institute proceedings before the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT), without having to first refer the case to the Financial Secretary for his decision, to enforce PSI disclosure requirement, and to deal with the existing six types of market misconduct under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) (Note 1); and
- The SFC will establish the Investor Education Centre (IEC) to take up broader investor education responsibilities covering the entire financial services sector (Note 2).
Provisions relating to the SFC directly instituting proceedings before the MMT and the establishment of the IEC will come into operation on 4 May 2012.
The PSI disclosure regime will take effect on 1 January 2013 to give listed companies sufficient time to prepare themselves to comply with the new requirements and to set up the necessary internal control systems.
Notes:
1. The six types of market misconduct under the SFO are insider dealing, false trading, price rigging, disclosure of information about prohibited transactions, disclosure of false or misleading information inducing transaction, and stock market manipulation.
2. The Investor Education Centre, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SFC, is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2012.
