FINANCIAL AND MONETARY AFFAIRS
Companies incorporated overseas must register certain documents with the registry within one month of establishing a place of business in Hong Kong. A registration fee of $1,425, a lodgement fee of $295 and some incidental filing fees are payable in such cases. During 1998, 570 of these were registered. At the end of the year, 5312 companies were registered from 76 countries.
Money Lenders
Under the Money Lenders Ordinance, anyone wishing to carry on business as a money lender must apply to a licensing court for a licence. The ordinance does not apply to institutions authorised under the Banking Ordinance.
Licence applications are, initially, submitted to the Registrar of Companies as Registrar of Money Lenders. A copy is also sent to the Commissioner of Police who may object to the application. The application is advertised, and any member of the public who has an interest in the matter also has the right to object. During the year, 1 111 applications were received and 1 104 licences were granted. At the end of 1998, there were 114 licensed money lenders.
The ordinance provides severe penalties for statutory offences such as carrying on an unlicensed money-lending business. It also provides that any loan made by an unlicensed money lender shall not be recoverable by court action. With certain exceptions (primarily authorised institutions under the Banking Ordinance) any person, whether a licensed money lender or not, who lends or offers to lend money at an interest rate exceeding 60 per cent per annum commits an offence. Any agreement for the repayment of any such loan, or security given in respect of such loan is unenforceable.
Bankruptcies, Individual Voluntary Arrangement and Compulsory Winding-up
The Official Receiver's Office administers the estates of individual bankrupts and companies ordered to be compulsorily wound up by the High Court of First Instance. The Official Receiver becomes the receiver of an individual debtor or provisional liquidator of a company when a bankruptcy order against the property of the debtor or a winding-up order against the company is made by the Court. Where the assets of an estate do not exceed $200,000, the Official Receiver is appointed trustee or liquidator by a summary procedure order. In other cases, a meeting of creditors in bankruptcy, or meetings of creditors and contributories in compulsory liquidation will be convened to decide whether the Official Receiver or some other fit persons from the private sector should be appointed trustee or liquidator.
When he acts as trustee or liquidator, the Official Receiver investigates the affairs of the bankrupt or the wound-up company, realises assets and distributes dividends to creditors. The Official Receiver also prosecutes certain offences set out in the Bankruptcy and Companies Ordinances, applies for disqualification of unfit company directors, supervises the work of outside liquidators and trustees, and monitors the funds held by liquidators in compulsory and voluntary liquidations.
The Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 1996, which came into operation on April 1, 1998, abolished the outdated concept of 'acts of bankruptcy', streamlined the two-stage system of a receiving order and adjudication order by a single bankruptcy order, provided for automatic discharge for bankrupts after a certain period,
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