The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau have recently stated that as an international banking and financial centre, Hong Kong supports the consistent implementation of international standards across all Basel Committee member jurisdictions. The statement was made in relation to the gazetting of the Banking (Capital) (Amendment) Rules 2015 on 23 October 2015 which introduced some miscellaneous amendments to the Banking (Capital) Rules (Cap155L).

The amendments align certain aspects of the Banking (Capital) Rules more closely with relevant Basel III standards, addressing several technical details noted in an earlier evaluation by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on Hong Kong’s capital regime. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority confirmed that the banking industry had been engaged in formulating the refinements and that they are not expected to have a significant impact on the capital positions of local authorized institutions.

The Banking (Capital) (Amendment) Rules 2015 will come into operation on January 1, 2016.