ENG-2005 — Page 130

100 | Financial and Monetary Affairs

The ordinance provides penalties for 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, any person, who lends or offers to lend money at an interest rate exceeding 60 per cent per annum commits an offence.

Bankruptcies, Individual Voluntary Arrangement and Compulsory Winding-up

The Official Receiver's Office usually administers the estates of individuals adjudged to be bankrupt by the court whilst the estates of companies ordered to be wound up by the court are generally administered by insolvency practitioners from the private sector.

When acting as the trustee or liquidator, the Official Receiver or the insolvency practitioner 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 orders against unfit company directors, monitors the conduct of outside liquidators and trustees, and monitors the funds held by liquidators in both compulsory and voluntary liquidations.

During the year, the court made 9 810 bankruptcy orders, 934 interim orders in individual voluntary arrangements and 849 winding-up orders, compared with last year's respective figures of 13 593, 2 313 and 1 147. The assets realised by the Official Receiver during 2005 amounted to $157.9 million, while $182.0 million in dividends was paid to creditors in 2 650 insolvency cases. There were 800 cases assigned under the scheme for contracting out summary winding-up cases.

The Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 2005 was enacted on July 15, 2005. Among other things, the ordinance empowers the Official Receiver to directly appoint a private-sector insolvency practitioner to administer debtor petition summary bankruptcy cases (where the value of the bankrupt's estate is unlikely to exceed $200,000) without the need to convene a creditors' meeting. When the ordinance and the relevant subsidiary legislation come into effect, the Official Receiver will start to outsource the summary bankruptcy cases.

Professional Accountancy

Hong Kong had 25 388 certified public accountants at year-end. Of these, 3 441 were certified public accountants (practising), who are in public practice and may perform statutory audits. There were 1 136 firms of certified public accountants (practising) and 186 corporate practices registered at year-end.

The HKICPA operates a largely self-regulatory framework under the Professional Accountants Ordinance. The institute is vested under the ordinance with a wide range of responsibilities, such as registering certified public accountants; maintaining financial reporting, auditing and ethical standards for the profession; and conducting training programmes and qualifying examinations.