Didi Global, Mainland China’s ride-hailing giant, was fined US$1.2 billion this month by the Cyberspace Administration of China, for violating data security laws. The fine comes a year after the the country’s central Internet regulator launched a cybersecurity investigation into the company shortly after its initial public offering in New York last June.
127
The number of environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics found in Mainland China’s first ever voluntary corporate sustainability disclosure guidelines, which launched this month. The guidelines, which were published by the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society, a state-backed council, are expected to be first adopted by larger companies in Mainland China. ESG reporting is not mandatory for listed companies on the Mainland.
Swap Connect
The name of a new initiative by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited that will allow for Hong Kong and international investors to access the interest rate swap markets in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The scheme, which was announced on the same day as the ETF Connect on 4 July, marks another milestone in connecting the financial markets between Hong Kong and the Mainland, and is expected to launch before the end of the year.
Stephan von Erffa
The former head of accounting of Wirecard AG who admitted this month to forging documents requested by KPMG during a special audit. Von Erffa is one of three defendants in a case brought by prosecutors in Munich following the collapse of the German payments company, which filed for insolvency in June 2020.
January
The month in which Ashley Alder, Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), will leave his role next year, said the regulator this month. Alder, who has held the role since October 2011, is the SFC’s longest serving CEO, and will be joining the Financial Conduct Authority, a regulator in the United Kingdom. A successor has not yet been identified. “I owe a debt of gratitude to all who have contributed to the evolution of the SFC into an organization which is acknowledged globally as one of a handful of world-class market regulators,” Alder said in a statement.
£14.4 million
The amount KPMG in the United Kingdom was fined for deliberately providing false and misleading documents to the Financial Reporting Council during inspections of its audit on collapsed construction company Carillion plc and Regenersis, an outsourcing company. It is the biggest fine the firm has ever received in the U.K.
“The ability to facilitate more travelling between Hong Kong and the Mainland and Hong Kong and internationally. I think that is at the moment the most critical constraint that we are facing and we have to overcome.”
– Paul Chan FCPA, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, told the South China Morning Post on 25 July. He warned that Hong Kong may have to downgrade its annual growth forecast in August for the second time in three months, citing constraints such as the city’s daily COVID-19 infections, strict quarantine rules, supply chain issues on the Mainland, and inflation in the United States and Europe, as reasons for the weak economy.
4
The number of additional members appointed to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The IFRS Foundation Trustees announced the appointment of Jeffrey Hales, Michael Jantzi, Tae-Young Paik and Elizabeth Seeger as members of the ISSB. Their appointments make the ISSB quorate.
22
The number of listings the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s main board saw in the first half of the year. The listings raised US$2.3 billion, which the lowest total since the first half of 2003, which yielded US$802.3 million, the South China Morning Post reported. The lacklustre performance is due to economic uncertainty, geopolitical and pandemic-related factors, according to EY’s Mainland China and Hong Kong IPO Markets report, released in June.
