SFC licensing and compliance hints – Dec 2018

Has the SFC got your latest details?

Do you have a system for reminding licensed representatives of the need to notify the SFC of changes in personal information? We often find people forget to notify changes in passport details, residential address and telephone numbers and so on.

The SFC has, since 26 November 2018, started issuing approval letters for individual licence applications by email according to its recent circular (https://www.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/circular/openFile?refNo=18EC84). Once an individual licence application is granted, the approval letter will be sent to the personal and office email addresses of the applicant as well as his/her licensed company’s email address on the following day. If you are in a compliance role, you should check the SFC’s portal to see if the company has provided the SFC with an email address. If you are a licensed individual, you also need to update the SFC of your email address through the portal.

Flexibility on submission of corporate notifications and annual returns

Also mentioned in the same circular, the SFC now also permits any person authorised by the board of a licensed company (e.g. the compliance officer), to submit notifications and annual returns on behalf of the licensed company; previously notifications and returns had to be submitted by a responsible officer. 

New look for the SFC, new look on certificates

The SFC launched a new logo in October 2018 which you may have noticed on its website and some of its publications. The SFC announced on 3 December 2018 that corporate licensing certificates issued from that day will bear the new logo (https://www.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/circular/doc?refNo=18EC86). Certificates with the old logo remain valid.