HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1952
apart from their relatively small fiduciary issues. Since that date the value of the Hong Kong dollar has been maintained at approximately 1/3d. sterling. At the end of 1951 its value in U.S.$ was 0.1750, and in Australian Currency 1/7d.
Note Issues and Banks
Notes of denominations from five dollars upwards are issued by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd: The Government issue comprises notes of one dollar, ten cent, five cent and one cent denominations and coins of fifty cent, ten cent and five cent denominations.
The Colony is included in the sterling area.
Ex- change control is administered under powers conferred by the Defence (Finance) Regulations, 1940. The system of control is based on that in force in the United Kingdom and other parts of the sterling area, with modifications necessitated by the position of Hong Kong as an entrepôt. Twenty-four banks including the three note-issuing banks mentioned above, are authorized to deal in foreign exchange. Some of these banks have branches or correspondents throughout the world and are thus able to offer world-wide comprehensive banking facilities to the public.
In addition to these incorporated banks, there are in the Colony many Chinese banks which handle a considerable volume of remittances from Chinese living overseas to their relatives in China.
Under the provisions of the Banking Ordinance, enacted in 1948, no company may carry on banking business without being licensed. At the end of the year there were 111 licensed banks, many of them small Chinese banks.
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