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Financial and Monetary Affairs
between one and two months from take-up, while authorisation for non-standard applications, if granted, will be given on average within two to three months from take-up. After the pilot period, the SFC will make refinements where appropriate before formally adopting the policy.
Corporate Treasury Centres
Hong Kong is Asia's premier location for multinational corporations to manage their global or regional treasury functions. To attract more companies to establish corporate treasury centres (CTCs) in Hong Kong, the government introduced the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill 2015 into LegCo in December to allow, under specified conditions, interest deductions under profits tax for CTC, and to reduce the profits tax rate for qualifying CTCs by 50 per cent, lowering it to 8.25 per cent.
Bond Market and Islamic Finance
The Government Bond Programme (GBP) promotes the sustainable development of the bond market. It has a borrowing ceiling of $200 billion.
Bonds totalling $20.4 billion were issued to institutional investors under the GBP in 2015. In August, the government issued a $10 billion inflation-linked retail bond (iBond), with a tenor of three years, for the fifth time under the programme to Hong Kong residents to further develop the retail bond market.
To promote the development of the Islamic bond (sukuk) market, the government issued US$1 billion, five-year government sukuk in June under the GBP. The offer attracted orders of US$2 billion from a diverse group of international investors. The sukuk was in Wakalah structure, making Hong Kong the first AAA-rated government sukuk issuer to adopt this structure and demonstrating the flexibility of Hong Kong's issuance platform.
Financial Technologies (Fintech)
Fintech can enhance the operational efficiency of financial institutions and foster new modes of development for the financial services industry. Hong Kong, as an international financial centre with a highly developed information and communication technology sector, is an ideal hub for developing Fintech. To spearhead the development of the Fintech sector, the government set up a Steering Group on Fintech in April to develop recommendations on how to promote the city as a Fintech hub in collaboration with the regulatory authorities, tapping the minds of industry professionals, the academia, and research and development institutions.
Improvement of Corporate Insolvency Law
The Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 2015 was introduced into LegCo in October. The bill aims to improve and modernise Hong Kong's corporate winding-up regime with a view to increasing protection of creditors, streamlining the winding-up process and further enhancing the integrity of the process.
Financial Services Development Council
The Financial Services Development Council, established by the government in 2013, published seven reports in 2015, providing proposals on subjects including Chinese enterprises going
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