Mapping your global operating model against the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) to pinpoint necessary licences, statutory carve-outs, and legal structuring alternatives.
Under Section 114 and Section 115 of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO, Cap. 571), conducting or actively marketing regulated activities to the Hong Kong public without a licence constitutes a criminal offence. For overseas firms, distinguishing between offshore activity, permissible incidental services, and activities requiring an SFC licence is complex.
Over-scoping your application triggers unnecessary paid-up capital requirements, staffing commitments, and protracted vetting. Under-scoping creates regulatory exposure or requires subsequent licence variation applications. A rigorous upfront scoping assessment eliminates ambiguity before formal filing on the SFC WINGS portal.
Standard tangible deliverables prepared and submitted for statutory review:
A comprehensive evaluation of your business lines against the 10 Regulated Activities defined in Schedule 5 of the SFO (specifically Type 1 Brokerage, Type 4 Advising, Type 6 Corporate Finance, and Type 9 Asset Management).
Assessment of statutory exemptions, including the incidental advice carve-out, professional investor exclusions, intra-group treasury exemptions, and offshore management delegations.
Structuring recommendations for Hong Kong operating entities, holding companies, offshore general partners (GPs), and delegating sub-investment management arrangements.
Calculation of statutory paid-up share capital and liquid capital under the Financial Resources Rules (FRR, Cap. 571N), alongside required Responsible Officer (RO) and Manager-in-Charge (MIC) allocations.
Structured Roadmap
Detailed review of your target product offerings, client types (Retail vs Professional Investors), revenue flows, and existing overseas regulatory licences.
Direct legal alignment against SFO Schedule 5 regulated activity definitions, identifying overlapping triggers and cross-licence dependencies.
Determining minimum paid-up and liquid capital thresholds under FRR, evaluating proposed Responsible Officers against SFC Guidelines on Competence.
Presentation of the final Scoping Matrix, recommended licensing timeline, budget estimates, and step-by-step preparation plan for SFC WINGS filing.
This advisory module directly supports applications and ongoing governance for:
If investment discretion is exercised in Hong Kong, an SFC Type 9 licence is mandatory. However, if investment decisions are fully executed outside Hong Kong by an overseas manager and the Hong Kong entity provides solely research or non-discretionary advice to its offshore parent, statutory exemptions or a Type 4 licence may apply instead.
A corporation licensed for Type 1 (Dealing in Securities) or Type 9 (Asset Management) may provide advisory services (Type 4) without a separate Type 4 licence if the advice is given solely incidental to its licensed dealing or asset management activities. Our assessment verifies whether your advisory workflow qualifies.
A standard comprehensive assessment typically requires 2 to 3 weeks from the receipt of your business model description and corporate organizational documents.
Yes. We conduct a preliminary suitability check of your prospective Responsible Officers (ROs) against the SFC Guidelines on Competence, identifying potential HKSI exam exemptions or industry experience gaps.