mg1.ph/McIntyre/17.5.42
HM Treasury
CONFIDENTIAL
Miss Rosalind Marsden
Foreign & Commonwealth Office Hong Kong Department LONDON
SW1A 2AH
MON
Parliament Street
London SWIP 3AG Telephone 071-270 4699
JMKC 102/h papp="/v
AER
22 MAY 1990
INDEX
17 May 1990
i
Dear Rosalind.
JARDINE FLEMING BANKING LICENCE
32
Thank you for your letter
of 14 May, which we discussed this morning. This is simply to confirm my comments in writing.
In the third paragraph of your draft letter, you may want to take account of the point (which John Kirby mentioned to me earlier this week) that the Hong Kong legislation provides for exceptions to be made, for foreign-owned institutions which fail the size of assets test,
if they are of "undoubted standing" and if granting them a full licence would serve the interests of Hong Kong as an international financial centre. You may not want to spell all this out in the draft letter. But as currently worded, the draft suggests that foreign applicants must meet the necessary size
criteria.
This
Our other point concerns the final paragraph of the draft. seems to offer a hostage to fortune in two ways. First, it might be seized on by Jardine Matheson as testimony from
application to
Prime Minister
supporting their
the
the
bit
Hong Hong Authorities. Second, one ought perhaps to be a cautious in handing out generous plaudits. One never quite knows what will be in next week's newspapers!
I am sending a copy of this letter to John Kirby at the Bank.
CONFIDENTIAL
ран
J P MCINTYRE
Switchboard 071-270 3000
Fax 071-270 5653
Telex 9413704
34
Page 45Page 46