General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6255 |
| Course name: | Compliance and Financial Markets |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme |
| Semester: | First |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits |
| Remarks: | Only offer to LLM(CR) students |
1.2 Course description
The finance industry is facing increasing demand of compliance to the changing regulatory landscape. The increase of regulations stem from the need of investors protection, building investors confidence and maintaining market integrity. There is also a need of building a risk and compliance culture within the industry and within the industry practitioners.
The course will start with the discussion of globalization of finance, the background leading to the global financial crisis in 2008 and the post crisis regulatory reform. The objective of the course is to develop an understanding of the development of financial markets, the role and function of financial markets, their risks and international efforts to address those risks. This will form the basis to understand the evolving global, regional and local regulatory and compliance landscape.
The course will look at the regulatory structures in different key financial centres with a comparison of how global regulators regulate respective financial markets in light of the need of investors protection and maintaining market integrity.
The course reviews Hong Kong regulatory structure for the banking and investment industry, namely the function, powers and responsibility of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission, how they work together and how they interact with the industry players. The Lehman minibonds crisis in Hong Kong and its impact to regulatory development will be discussed. The Lehman Minibonds Report issued by SFC/HKMA/Legco will form the basis of such discussion.
Relevant sections of local law relating to the banking and investment industry, including the Securities and Futures Ordinance, the Banking Ordinance and the Exchange Fund Ordinance will be discussed. The course will also cover what is compliance what role does compliance play in a financial institution The role, duties and responsibilities of compliance officer, and how it interacts with the management, business units, risk and audit, legal and operations, and with the regulators will be discussed.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Douglas Arner | douglas.arner@hku.hk | CCT 909 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Describe and explain the function, powers, role and responsibilities of the regulators.
CLO 2 Understand the licensing regime and the regulatory framework governing the financial market in Hong Kong.
CLO 3 Follow the development of the regulations and rules since the 2008 global financial crisis especially in light of investors protection, client suitability and know your client policy.
CLO 4 Demonstrate an awareness of the General Principles under the SFC Code of Conduct for licensed persons.
CLO 5 Understand the role of compliance in a financial intermediary. Apply the knowledge of regulations into business situations.
2.2 LLM Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link: https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 10% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | |
| Group presentation | from 4 Oct 2023 | 30% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | |
| Take home exam | 20 Dec 2023 | 60% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/