Compliance Market Overview
2022 was a very active year in terms of recruitment activities across the compliance market following a period of political change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hiring activity was driven by various factors, including Hong Kong emigration, career breaks, mental health & wellness breaks, and ex-pats repatriating. Most international banks battled hard to retain talent to avoid increasing the workload and stress on existing team members which would exacerbate a vicious cycle of more turnover – all whilst being mindful of the checks and balances of budgets and recruitment spending.
Key drivers/Regulations
Recent regulatory changes include Climate Change / ESG, which impacts all types of financial institutions in Hong Kong, particularly the Type 9 (Asset Management) licensed corporations. This initiative has been implemented in two phases ending Nov 2022. The new regulatory requirement will mean additional costs for financial institutions to obtain and analyze ESG data; it will also add to the burden of compliance practitioners to ensure they coordinate with the relevant stakeholders in considering the climate-related risks and that governance and controls are firmly in place to comply with these changes.
Data Privacy was another hot topic for compliance in 2022. Privacy law impacts all financial institutions; the compliance team must often work closely with legal and IT to address these issues. Hong Kong is still catching up with EMEA and the US regarding frameworks to govern data privacy, such as a knowledge gap and talent shortage in this specific realm.
Joanne Lee
Associate Director FS Insurance, Legal & Compliance +852 2499 9796 joannelee@puresearch.com