banking

The local banking sector highlights a number of positive features which have contributed to the development of Hong Kong as one of the world's major banking centres. These include a well developed financial infrastructure, a conducive regulatory environment and sound supervisory process, free and open markets, a modern and effective legal system and a high degree of transparency. Within this setting the sector has been able to maintain high safety and soundness standards and impressive financial performance which compares favourably to international standards, particularly in terms of efficiency and asset quality.
The study identifies a number of global forces and trends in financial services which will shape the development of the Hong Kong banking sector. The end-result is likely to be increased competition and more efficient behaviour in the banking sector. However, the trends will also introduce a number of new challenges and increase overall complexity and the level of risks to which banks and the sector will be exposed.