Exchange participants should already have in place appropriate controls to comply with the investor eligibility requirement in relation to debt securities listed on the Exchange under Chapter 37 of the Listing Rules and necessary measures to rectify any non-compliance. For example, exchange participants should have prior agreement with their clients that a non-professional investor may be requested to unwind its debt securities positions as soon as possible.
As is the case of any violation of the SEHK Rules, an exchange participant should report to the Exchange if it had executed an order for a non-professional investor to purchase such debt securities. In addition, the exchange participant shall consider taking, or the Exchange may require the exchange participant to take, such actions or measures as may be necessary to remedy or rectify any non-compliance, for example, acquiring the positions of the non-professional investors; or to prevent any further non-compliance.
The Exchange takes any non-compliance seriously and will review and follow up on each incident. Follow-up actions may include issuing warning letters, conducting further enquiries, commencing investigations and reporting the matter to the SFC.