Bank Rule Amendments Gazetted

The Banking (Disclosure) (Amendment) Rules 2018 and the Banking (Specification of Multilateral Development Bank) (Amendment) Notice 2018 were gazetted today to implement recent international standards on banking regulation in Hong Kong.

The disclosure rules seek to implement the latest disclosure requirements issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in March 2017 to enhance the requirements in terms of transparency, comparability and user-relevance of bank disclosures.

The amendment notice reflects a decision by the committee in October to specify the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a multilateral development bank to which banks' exposures will be eligible for preferential capital and liquidity treatment.

The Government said the continuation of Basel III implementation shows Hong Kong's commitment to aligning its regulatory regime with the latest international regulatory standards, which is important to the city as a major international financial centre.

The Monetary Authority said the disclosure rules are a continuation of efforts to promote market discipline in the banking sector through enhanced regulatory disclosure, while the amendment notice will ensure the capital and liquidity frameworks of local authorised institutions are brought up to date.

The amendments will be tabled at the Legislative Council on May 9 for implementation on June 30.