​The Department of Health (DH) announced today (November 20) that, starting from January 1, 2026, it will launch a pilot programme to streamline the evaluation and approval process for proprietary Chinese medicines (pCm) registration applications. Along with the existing processing procedures, two new tiers will be introduced, namely "Innovative Drugs" and "Designated Priority Products", with specified target processing times. The new arrangement aims to expedite processing o

Hong Kong Customs conducted a three-week enforcement operation codenamed "Nunchaku" from October 20 to November 14 to specifically combat counterfeit and infringing goods activities involving cross-boundary transshipments and local deliveries during the Double 11 Festival shopping period. During the operation, Customs detected 29 related cases and seized a total of 120 000 suspected counterfeit goods, with a total estimated market value of about $65 million. Amid the hug

A money service operator license holder was convicted by the Eastern Magistrates' Courts on November 4 for failing to comply with customer due diligence and record-keeping requirements, and providing false or misleading documents to Customs officers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Ordinance). The company was fined a total of $328,000, the highest fine on record among similar cases.      During a compliance inspection in March last y

Hong Kong Customs detected two suspected smuggling cases involving ocean-going vessels on October 27 and 31. Large batches of suspected smuggled goods with a total estimated market value of about $64 million were seized. Through intelligence analysis and risk assessment, Customs discovered that criminals intended to use ocean-going vessels to smuggle goods. Enforcement operations were thus formulated, with two suspicious containers selected for inspection. Customs inspected a

Hong Kong Customs yesterday (November 12) raided a suspected illicit cigarette storage centre in Kwai Chung and seized about 240 000 suspected illicit cigarettes with an estimated market value of about $1.08 million and a duty potential of about $790,000. Five persons suspected to be connected with the case were arrested. Through intelligence analysis and after a thorough investigation, Customs discovered that a cigarette smuggling syndicate had been using hotel rooms as illi

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today announced new enhancements to the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Pilot Scheme (Cross-boundary WMC) to foster closer communication between participating licensed corporations (Participating LCs) and their clients under the scheme (Note 1).          The SFC has set out in a circular the implementation details of the enhancements for client interaction, with key arrangements including: Participating LCs can now obtain

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Tung Tai Securities Company Limited (Tung Tai) HK$900,000 for failures relating to unauthorised sales of client securities and transfers of client funds (Note 1). The SFC’s investigation found that between 6 September 2019 and 18 February 2020, Tung Tai, acting on instructions from a bogus email address similar to that of an overseas client, sold shares in the client’s account and transferred the sale proce

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (13 November) announced the launch of Ensemble TX , marking the commencement of the pilot phase of Project Ensemble.  This milestone represents a significant advancement in enabling real-value transactions involving tokenised deposits and digital assets within a controlled pilot environment. Ensemble TX builds upon the successful outcomes of the Ensemble Sandbox experimentation, which since August 2024 has allowed industry pionee