Europe job beckons as SFC chief calls it quits

Tony Liaw

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Securities and Futures Commission chief executive Martin Wheatley will resign in the summer, three months before his contract expires in September.
The regulator will seek his successor through open recruitment.

"Six years is long enough," said Wheatley, 51, saying he is resigning for personal reasons and that his first priority will be to go back to his hometown for a holiday.

But sources said that will only be a break before Wheatley takes up a position with an European-based securities watchdog.

The new job takes Wheatley back to his roots.

Before joining the SFC, he was deputy chief executive of the London Stock Exchange.

Wheatley sits on the Financial Stability Board's standing committee for standards implementation and is a member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions' technical committee. He chairs the committee's task force on short selling.

He was appointed SFC chief in June 2006, one year after joining the regulator.

Wheatley will earn HK$9.09 million this year. His compensation package includes HK$7.2 million in basic salary, HK$1.35 million in discretionary pay and HK$540,000 in retirement scheme contributions.

Wheatley said the commission has taken in its stride the many challenges that confronted the financial markets and regulators, including the Lehman Brothers minibond crisis. "The Hong Kong system and the regulatory structure are still better than any other system in the world," he said.

Wheatley also succeeded in cracking down on a number of inappropriate deals. The SFC went to court to block the privatization of PCCW (0008) triggered by chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai.

It also strengthened protection for retail investors of structured products after the Lehman minibonds saga.

The involvement by the SFC led to a settlement between lenders and investors, in which 16 banks compensated minibond investors, in some instances in full.