ENG-2006 — Page 105

Financial and Monetary Affairs | 77

The SFC designated January 2006 as the Investor Education Month and renamed its investor portal to InvestEd (www.InvestEd.hk). Lively flash animation videos were introduced to complement text information on InvestEd. The SFC also ran new TV and radio commercials highlighting the importance of asking the right questions in buying warrants, opening a margin account and seeking investment advice.

The SFC and Radio Television Hong Kong jointly produced a 10-episode TV drama series, Investment Challenge, to enhance public understanding of complex and structured products. Besides, the SFC and MetroFinance launched a 20-episode radio programme, Learn More About Investing. To highlight risks associated with securities margin accounts, the SFC launched an educational video, Know the Pooling Risk.

In light of several cases of broker failures in mid-2006, the SFC reiterated to investors through different channels the importance of safeguarding themselves against misappropriation and unauthorised trading.

The SFC continued to organise outreach activities targeting different audiences. It held workshops for vocational teachers and secondary school teachers of economics, commerce and related subjects as well as talks for secondary school students. The SFC also expanded its investor education efforts to all local universities through credit-based courses, guest lectures and workshops. The response to these activities was positive 8 750 people attended the 77 sessions.

In terms of international activities, the SFC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) in 2006. The MOU established a framework to facilitate cooperation in the enforcement of securities law as well as the exchange of information between the SFC and the ISA.

The SFC continued to actively participate in the work of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). In June 2006, it hosted the 31st Annual Conference of the IOSCO in Hong Kong, attracting over 650 regulators and market practitioners from 135 jurisdictions. During the conference, IOSCO adopted a new resolution that encouraged members to examine the legal framework under which they operated and to enable the freezing of assets derived from cross- boundary securities and derivatives violations.

Insider Dealing Tribunal and the Market Misconduct Tribunal

The Insider Dealing Tribunal was

Tribunal was an important feature of the regulatory framework for the securities market in Hong Kong. Established under the repealed Securities (Insider Dealing) Ordinance, the tribunal looked into cases involving suspected insider dealing referred to it by the Financial Secretary. By year-end, it had concluded a total of 24 cases since it commenced operation in 1994.

When the SFO came into force on April 1, 2003, the Insider Dealing Tribunal was replaced by the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT), which covers five other types of market misconduct (false trading; price rigging; disclosure of information about prohibited transactions; disclosure of false or misleading information inducing transactions and stock market manipulation) in addition to insider dealing. The MMT decides cases on the civil standard of proof and can impose a range of civil sanctions,

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