LegCo to debate motion on urging the Government to step up the regulation of money lenders and financial intermediaries
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The Legislative Council (LegCo) will hold a meeting on Wednesday (February 8) at 11am in the Chamber of the LegCo Complex. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on urging the Government to step up the regulation of money lenders and financial intermediaries.
The motion, moved by Ms Alice Mak, states: "That in recent years, fraudulent cases involving financial intermediaries (intermediaries) have frequently occurred; information shows that the Police conducted a number of large-scale enforcement actions in 2015 and the first eight months of 2016, in which over 400 persons involved in malpractices of intermediaries were arrested, reflecting the severity of the problem; people in the relevant industry and non-governmental organisations have pointed out that the measures launched by the Government in April 2016 for more stringent regulation of money lenders can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause of the problem; to prevent more people from inadvertently falling into lending traps, this Council urges the Government to step up the regulation of money lenders and intermediaries, and relevant measures should include:
(1) comprehensively reviewing and amending the Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163) to expand its ambit to the regulation of companies or institutions engaged in money lending-related business, and to implement the establishment of a licensing regime for financial intermediaries to directly regulate the intermediaries;
(2) further imposing more stringent licensing conditions for money lenders licence and formulating more stringent procedures for vetting licence applications, including requiring the applicant to hold a specified sum of registered capital to ensure adequate financial resources for the operation of money lending-related business, and making the operator's conduct and the company's business and financial information factors for consideration in licence issuance and renewal; and applying the above arrangements to the new licensing regime for intermediaries;
(3) promoting the professional development of the industry to improve the conduct of its practitioners, so as to solve the problem of varying standards among practitioners and combat the bad sales practices in the industry;
(4) exploring the establishment of a statutory regulatory body to more effectively regulate companies or institutions engaged in money lending-related business;
(5) continuously taking strict enforcement actions to combat the illegal practices involving intermediaries; and
(6) providing adequate resources to enhance public education and counselling services, with a view to reducing people's risk of being deceived by unscrupulous intermediaries."
Mr Leung Yiu-chung, Mr Wu Chi-wai and Mr Kenneth Leung will move separate amendments to Ms Alice Mak's motion.
Mr Luk Chung-hung will move a motion on expeditiously conducting a comprehensive review of the Government's service outsourcing system. The motion states: "That the governance philosophy of the Hong Kong Government has all along been influenced by neo-liberalism; since the 1990s, the Government has been gradually outsourcing public services such as cleaning and security; in recent years, the scope of outsourced services has become even more extensive, covering areas such as information technology, plant and equipment maintenance, building and property management, with a significant increase in the number of outsourced service contracts; given that many public and private organisations have followed the Government's practice of outsourcing services, employees of outsourced service contractors have seen their remuneration suppressed, employment rights and benefits exploited, and employment stability undermined over the years, therefore, service outsourcing is the culprit causing in-work poverty and the disparity between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong; although the Government has proposed improvement measures to the service outsourcing system, which include amending the standard employment contract, improving the marking scheme for assessing tenders for contracts, and imposing a requirement last year that all departments must consider the wage levels to be offered to employees by tenderers when inviting tenders for outsourced services, these measures are only patchy fixes which cannot reverse the plights of 'low wages, little benefits and a lack of job security' faced by employees of outsourced services; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to conduct a comprehensive review of the service outsourcing system, which includes:
(1) requiring tenderers to offer to employees wage levels higher than the statutory minimum wage or to set the wage levels according to the median wage of the relevant industries;
(2) strictly enforcing the demerit point system for outsourcing services so that severe punishments will be imposed on outsourced service contractors in breach of labour legislation or safety requirements;
(3) examining and improving the standard employment contract to eradicate exploitation of employees' rights and benefits by outsourced service contractors, such as evasion of making severance payment; and
(4) narrowing the scope and scale of service outsourcing, and recruiting employees on civil service agreement terms to fill positions with long-term service needs."
Mr Steven Ho, Mr Leung Yiu-chung, Mr Charles Mok, Mr Poon Siu-ping and Dr Kwok Ka-ki will move separate amendments to Mr Luk Chung-hung's motion.
In addition, Mr Chan Chun-ying will move a proposed resolution under section 34(4) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to extend the period for amending the Banking (Disclosure) (Amendment) Rules 2016 and the Banking (Specification of Class of Exempted Charges) (Amendment) Notice 2016 laid on the table of the Council on January 11, 2017 to the meeting of March 1, 2017.
Ms Starry Lee will move a motion under Rule 49E(2) of the Rules of Procedure. The motion states: "That this Council takes note of Report No.10/16-17 of the House Committee laid on the table of the Council on February 8, 2017 in relation to the Construction Workers Registration (Exemption) Regulation and the Construction Workers Registration Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 1A) Notice 2016."
Mr Paul Tse will also move a proposed resolution under Article 75 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China to amend the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as set out in the Schedule.
On bills, the Apology Bill and the Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 2017 will be introduced into the Council for the First Reading and the Second Reading. The Second Reading debate on the Bills will be adjourned.
During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 22 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the LegCo Website (www.legco.gov.hk). Please note that the agenda is subject to change, and the latest information about the agenda could be found on the LegCo Website.
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Chamber of the LegCo Complex. They may reserve seats by calling 3919 3399 during office hours. Members of the public can also watch or listen to the meeting via the "Webcast" system on the LegCo Website.
Ends/Monday, February 6, 2017
Issued at HKT 19:15
Issued at HKT 19:15
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