TNAG-1855-FCO40-2630-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 124

HONG KONG

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL -15 March 1989 香港立法局———————————一九八九年三月十五日

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holders and should be brought into effect as early as possible. However, having regard to representations made by the insurance industry, we propose to extend the grace period by three months to 1 April 1991. This will allow existing authorized insurers two full years in which to comply. In the interests of existing and future policy holders, I hope that the authorized insurers will make every effort to meet the new solvency margins sooner rather than later.

Proposed amendment

Clause 6

That clause 6(b) be amended, by deleting "January" and substituting "April" in the proposed subsection (1A).

Question on the amendment proposed, put and agreed to.

Question on clause 6, as amended, proposed, put and agreed to.

MONEY CHANGERS (DISCLOSURE OF RATES, CHARGES AND COMMISSIONS) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1989

Clauses 1 to 4, 6 and 7 were agreed to.

Clauses 5 and 8

MR. BARROW: Sir, I move that clauses 5 and 8 be amended as set out in the paper circulated to Members.

The proposed section 4(10) under clause 5 of the Bill provides that if a customer refuses to proceed with an exchange transaction, the money changer shall immediately hand back to the customer the currency tendered by the customer for the exchange transaction. The amendment is proposed to ensure that money changers do not impose a handling fee in respect of transactions which are cancelled. This point was raised by the Hong Kong Tourist Association and has the support of the Legislative Council ad hoc group.

The proposed section 8 under clause 8 of the Bill deals with the displaying of rates of exchange. The originally proposed section 8(2) provided that if a money changer chose to advertise the rate of commission or charges, or that he charged no commission in respect of an exchange transaction, he had to give equal prominence in the advertisement to the commission, charge or fee or the non-payment of commission with respect to both the buying and selling of