The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”) Government adopts a multi-agency approach in constructing its AML/CFT regime. A high-level Central Coordinating Committee on AML/CFT (“CCC”), chaired by the Financial Secretary, steers the formulation of policies and implementation of the AML/CFT regime. It comprises members from the relevant Government bureaux and departments, financial regulators and law enforcement agencies (“LEAs”), which work together to take forward AML/CFT initiatives.
The Government is committed to upholding a robust AML/CFT regime that:
- fulfills the international AML/CFT standards;
- deters and detects illicit fund flows in and out of the territory, through the financial system or otherwise;
- combats ML/TF and restrains and confiscates illicit proceeds effectively;
- reduces ML/TF vulnerabilities of both financial and non-financial sectors in Hong Kong;
- adopts an RBA in applying compliance obligations to businesses and individuals;
- fosters strong external and international collaboration to disrupt global ML/TF threats; and
- promotes the awareness and builds the capacity of private sector stakeholders in combatting ML/TF risks through engagements in AML/CFT efforts.
In line with the above principles, the Government will focus efforts in five major areas to enhance its AML/CFT regime:
- enhancing the AML/CFT legal framework to address gaps in legislation in accordance with international standards and an RBA;
- strengthening risk-based supervision to ensure targeted regulation of the riskier areas faced by the financial and non-financial sectors;
- sustaining outreach and capacity-building to promote awareness and understanding of ML/TF risks by various sectors and the wider community on a continuous basis;
- monitoring new and emerging risks to respond promptly to evolving patterns of predicate offences or terrorism, and modes of ML/TF; and
- strengthening law enforcement efforts and intelligence capability to tackle domestic and international ML/TF, and enhance restraint and confiscation of the proceeds of crime, including through multi-agency cooperation/ partnership.