While Hong Kong's retail market remains dominated by European Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferrable Securities (UCITS) (up to about 70% of the funds authorised in Hong Kong for retail distribution are UCITS), both local and international fund managers have shown interest of late in adding a Hong Kong-domiciled collective investment scheme to their stable of funds authorised by the local Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The reasons are two fold: part pragmatic - having a locally domiciled fund targeted at the local or regional market reduces the number of regulators having supervision over the product (and potentially conflicting regulations and policies) one has to deal with, and part speculative - when the attractive domestic funds market on Mainland China one day opens its doors to foreign funds, funds that are constituted and authorised in Hong Kong should be first in line.

That speculation paid off this past week when a senior executive director of the SFC announced that the SFC and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) are working on measures to allow the mutual recognition of funds from both sides of the border. While a full scale pass porting system (similar to that of the UCITS passport) has been deemed too ambitious and is firmly not on the cards, the mutual recognition of Hong Kong-based and authorised funds in Mainland China will allow both Hong Kong and global fund managers, issuers and product distributors to go the next best step in applying to the CSRC for approval for such funds to be distributed in the Mainland Chinese market. PRC funds will receive reciprocal treatment and be able to apply for SFC authorisation to be distributed in Hong Kong. Both such steps are currently not possible under existing legislation in both Mainland China and Hong Kong.