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ACGA features in Bloomberg: What Bankers Can Know, You Can't in Hong Kong

Jane Moir, ACGA Research Director, Hong Kong, features in a Bloomberg article, “What Bankers Can Know, You Can't in Hong Kong”.

Jane’s comments are quoted below.

"The U.K. goes far further in openness and transparency ...... The country doesn’t have ID cards. But the U.K.’s Companies Register collects a wealth of other information that helps in identifying people and tracking activities and interests, including date of birth, nationality, beneficial owners and company accounts. The search function is also free and easy to navigate — a contrast to Hong Kong, where users must pay for each search. Australia is less comprehensive, though has introduced director identification numbers to help prevent the use of fictitious identities and make it easier to pinpoint involvement in unlawful activity. (The U.S. is a more complicated comparison because each state decides its own rules.)"

"Moir questions why the government will allow companies to submit a correspondence address rather than forcing them to disclose their actual place of business. The likelihood is that the Companies Register will fill with the addresses of company secretarial services that act for multiple businesses — an unambiguously retrograde step for transparency."

To read the full article, please visit Bloomberg.