The history of Hong Kong's financial industry can be traced back as far as the establishment of Hong Kong as a port for foreign trade. After more than 170 years of development, it has now become the most strategically valuable industry in Hong Kong’s economy, enjoying a pivotal position. Professor Jao Yu Ching, a renowned Hong Kong financier, has argued that "Hong Kong's emergence as an international financial center is one of the two major achievements of the Hong Kong economy since the end of World War II (the other being the transformation from an entrepot into a wealthy industrial economy)."
The rise of Hong Kong as an international financial hub in the Asia-Pacific region began around the 1970s. Powered by the growing economy, the prosperity of all industries, the booming stock market, and especially the adoption of a series of financial liberalization policies by the Government of HKSAR, which attracted foreign banks and multinational financial institutions swarming into Hong Kong in large numbers, Hong Kong's financial sector entered a period of rapid development, moving towards diversification and internationalization. In this process, a well-developed market system with a complete range of categories and a sound and relatively complete regulatory system have been formed in the financial industry.
After the returns of Hong Kong, despite the severe impacts of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the global financial tsunami in 2008, Hong Kong's financial industry has developed steadily and significantly and its status as an international financial center has been further consolidated, thanks to the influence of the "China Factor" and the HKSAR Government's proactive promotion of financial sector reforms.
Based on the author’s book "A Hundred Years of Hong Kong's Financial Industry" published in 2002, this book extends the timeline to 2017, and comprehensively presents the development of Hong Kong's financial industry across one and a half centuries from various perspectives including the banking industry, the capital market, asset management, the insurance industry as well as the financial regulation, etc. It vividly and deeply analyzes the evolution and development of Hong Kong's financial system and its laws with abundant data, concise texts and precious pictures, and accordingly provides an outlook on the future development of Hong Kong as an international financial center.
The book has been recommended by Jao Yu Ching, renowned Hong Kong financier; David K.P. Li, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Bank of East Asia; and Wu King Cheong, the Honorary Permanent President of the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society and the Permanent Honorary President of the Hong Kong Securities Association Limited.