Banking (Disclosure) (Amendment) Rules and Banking (Specification of Class of Exempted Charges) (Amendment) Notice

As an international banking and financial centre, the Banking (Disclosure) (Amendment) Rules 2016 (the “Amendment Rules”) and the Banking (Specification of Class of Exempted Charges) (Amendment) Notice 2016 (the “Amendment Notice”) were gazetted on 30 December 2016 to keep pace with the latest international regulatory standards for banking regulation in Hong Kong.

The Amendment Rules require disclosure of certain key regulatory metrics on a quarterly basis, and enhance the regulatory disclosure made by authorised institutions in terms of its comprehensiveness, user-relevance and comparability both between institutions and across jurisdictions.

The Amendment Notice provides certain exemption from existing limitations imposed under the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155) on the creation of charges by authorised institutions in order to facilitate the implementation of the latest international standards on exchange of margin and risk mitigation for over-the-counter derivative transactions.

The Amendment Rules and Amendment Notice will be tabled before the Legislative Council at its sitting on 11 January 2017 for negative vetting and will come into operation on 31 March 2017 and 3 March 2017 respectively. These amendments will promote market discipline in the banking sector with enhanced regulatory disclosure and will enhance the stability of the banking and financial system in Hong Kong.