HSBC SECURITIES BROKERS (ASIA) LIMITED 滙豐證券經紀(亞洲)有限公司

Two years after the SFC shut retail investors out HSBC's automated trading system, an SFC announcement gives some indication of what happened, but still leaves retail investors wondering why a pioneering service which offered potential price improvement and competition for HKEx's monopoly stock market was not allowed.

It was a false dawn for retail investors - the SFC has caved in to pressure and amended the license conditions of HSBC's Stockmax Crossing platform to restrict it to "professional investors" only. History will prove them wrong.

We look at the implications of HSBC's proposed StockMax dark pool with retail investor participation. It's a wake-up call to the Government, SFC and HKEx that we need to move forward with allowing competition to innovate services both inside and outside HKEx. We propose measures to achieve this while preserving fair and orderly markets.

For settlement issues after the HK Government's stock market buying blitz on 28-Aug-1998.