July newsletter

The July newsletter is has been sent to our subscribers. This month's editorial:

Please look out for a regulatory roundtable that we are jointly sponsoring with the Caymans law firm, Ogier, along with Fortis and Ernst & Young in Hong Kong. The roundtable will feature two senior representatives from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The roundtable will be held on the afternoon of Monday September 11P^thP and you can obtain a reservation by emailing Ualex.duperouzel@complianceasia.comU

July has been a relatively quiet month for regulatory events with a majority of regulators and large institutions working on half yearly accounts as well as taking some time for the summer break in the northern hemisphere countries.

Press reports are saying that a number of hedge funds in Hong Kong are relocating to Singapore. We know this is the case in some instances in addition to those reported, but we also note that a number of new funds are still arriving in Hong Kong. See our Singapore section for further details.

Our August newsletter will be commenting on the new anti money laundering guidance in Singapore that is an extension of the draft guidance note from January 2005. The changes are long overdue and most large players will find they have already incorporated the proposals. Smaller operations will find the new provisions, once they are formalised, an additional burden.

Australia’s new anti money laundering provisions are also a step closer to becoming law. It will be important to understand these provisions for anybody with Australian financial industry responsibility.

Finally, Singapore is preparing to hold the next meeting of the IMF and World Bank in September, so we anticipate that there will be significant news items from these meetings. For those of us in Singapore we should expect significant traffic disruption.