HKMA issued a circular on 19 February 2019 to communicate the first phase ordering the use of LEIs to take effect on 1 April 2019. Pursuant to the Joint Consultation Conclusions Paper on Enhancements to the OTC Derivatives Regime for Hong Kong published in June 2018, the first phase applies only to a reporting entity’s side of a transaction, in which all reporting entities are required to use an LEI to identify themselves when reporting to the HKTR effective from 1 April 2019.
In addition, HKMA reminded all reporting entities (including the Bank in this case) to put in place a process to request LEIs from clients after 1 April 2019. For clients who do not already have LEIs, this process includes informing clients about the necessity to obtain an LEI and to encourage or assist them to obtain it.
As a branch of a Swiss financial institution, the Bank should comply with Swiss legislation (such as FMIA). Therefore, transactions on the securities covered by these transactions will be blocked for entities that do not have a valid LEI or the entities’ incorporation number.