Butterworths Hong Kong Securities Law Handbook, 8th Edition

This work provides a comprehensive and authoritative annotated guide to the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571), offering detailed, section-by-section commentary grounded in both statutory interpretation and practical application.

Drawing on the collective experience of leading practitioners at the Hong Kong Bar, including Parkside Chambers'  Bernard Mak, the text integrates analysis of legislative provisions with relevant case law, regulatory guidance, and enforcement practice. It is designed not only as a reference tool but as a practical aid for litigators, regulators, and transactional lawyers navigating Hong Kong’s increasingly sophisticated financial regulatory landscape.

Particular emphasis is placed on how the Ordinance operates in practice—before the courts, in dealings with the Securities and Futures Commission, and across contentious and non-contentious contexts—making this an indispensable resource for those advising on securities, market misconduct, and regulatory compliance.

This edition reflects a period of significant activity and evolution in Hong Kong’s securities regulatory regime. Over recent years, there has been a marked increase in both judicial consideration and regulatory enforcement under the Ordinance, with a substantial body of new case law and enforcement decisions incorporated into the commentary.

The updates focus on three key areas:

• Enhanced enforcement landscape: Expanded analysis of enforcement-related provisions, including developments in the SFC’s investigative and remedial powers, as well as recent trends in market misconduct and insider dealing cases. These developments underscore a continued regulatory emphasis on market integrity.
• Evolving market infrastructure and regimes: Coverage of new and forthcoming regulatory frameworks, including the implementation of the uncertificated securities market regime and updates affecting fund structures such as open-ended fund companies, reflecting structural modernisation of Hong Kong’s securities market.
• Digital assets and derivatives regulation: Consideration of emerging areas such as virtual assets, stablecoin regulation, and the long-anticipated OTC derivatives regime, all of which are reshaping the scope and application of the Ordinance in practice.

In addition, the commentary has been substantially updated to reflect recent amendments to subsidiary legislation (including position limit rules for key index derivatives) and to integrate practical insights from recent litigation and advisory work undertaken by the contributing authors.

Overall, this edition seeks to capture not only what the law is, but how it is being actively applied and developed in a fast-moving regulatory environment.