The Treasury Markets Forum, as a broad-based and authoritative group, can help explore opportunities for closer co-operation with the Mainland on market development issues. Since the establishment of the Treasury Markets Forum, we have made visits to the Mainland financial regulatory bodies and the China Association of Banks to deepen our mutual understanding of the markets in two places. They were interested to learn about the work of the Forum, including those in raising the professionalism of our practitioners. The Forum also participated in the Hong Kong Financial Services Expo held in Shanghai in September to promote our treasury markets services to Mainland financial institutions and enterprises. We will also organise a seminar for the Mainland to promote their understanding in our financial markets, and responses from the Mainland have been very favourable. In addition, we will maintain close contacts with major overseas financial centres. In particular, we intend to invite major members from New York and London foreign exchange committees to meet with the Forum to facilitate the exchange of views on issues of mutual interest. In the past half year since its establishment, the Treasury Markets Forum has made good progress in its work. We will continue to work closely with industry associations with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of Hong Kong’s treasury markets and promoting Hong Kong’s status as the preferred hub for treasury markets services.
Treasury markets comprise a wide range of products including foreign exchange, fixed income, derivatives and so on. The boundaries between various markets have become blurred alongside more innovative and sophisticated structuring of new products. Whether dealing, sales or back-office staff in treasury markets all require strong technical, up-to-date knowledge in order to cope with the rapid changes in treasury markets. In the discussions between the Treasury Markets Forum and ACI - The Financial Markets Association of Hong Kong on the design of the new membership scheme, we consider that there is a need to bring together qualifying practitioners from various treasury markets. This can facilitate the exchange of views among practitioners within the industry on the one hand and promote the professional standing of practitioners on the other hand. In addition, accredited educational programmes should be introduced to raise the professionalism of practitioners and provide training to those who are interested to join the industry. Following the active co-ordination among industry bodies, I am glad that the ACI - The Financial Markets Association of Hong Kong has successfully launched the new membership regime and made a major stride in raising professionalism of treasury market practitioners. While ACI - The Financial Markets Association traditionally is composed of professionals in foreign exchange market, today, it has expanded the membership to those engaged in other treasury markets (such as bonds and derivatives), encompassing dealing, sales, broker and back-office personnel.