A Financial History of Hong Kong 1841-2017

The history of Hong Kong's financial industry can be traced back to the time when Hong Kong became a free port. After more than 170 years of development, it has become the most strategically valuable industry in Hong Kong's economy and has a pivotal position. Professor Y.C. Jao, a well-known financial expert in Hong Kong, believes that "the rise of Hong Kong as an international financial center is one of the two major achievements of Hong Kong's economy since the end of World War II (the other achievement is the transformation from an entreport to a prosperous industrial economy)." The rise of Hong Kong as an international financial center in the Asia-Pacific region began in the 1970s. With the takeoff of Hong Kong's economy, the prosperity of the stock market, and especially the Hong Kong government's adoption of a series of financial liberalization policies, foreign banks and multinational financial institutions have flocked here, and Hong Kong's financial sector has entered a period of rapid development, moving towards diversification and internationalization. In this process, a complete and developed market system was established, as well as a sound and relatively optimal regulatory system. Despite the severe impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial tsunami, after the handover, with the influence of the "China factor" and the HKSAR government's active promotion of financial industry reform, Hong Kong's financial industry has made significant progress, and Hong Kong's position as an international financial center has been further consolidated and enhanced. Based on the author's "A Century of Hong Kong Finance" published in 2002, this book extends the time and space to 2017. From multiple perspectives such as banking, capital markets, asset management, insurance, and financial regulation, it comprehensively documents the development of Hong Kong's financial industry over the past century and a half. With ample information, concise language, and rare pictures, it vividly and deeply analyzes the evolution and development of Hong Kong's financial system and financial institutions and their laws, and based on this, it heralds the future development of Hong Kong into an international financial center.