Ashley Alder, chief executive of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), will step down at the end of September to chair Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority from January next year. He has served the Hong Kong watchdog as CEO since 2011 and was supposed to leave later in 2023.
Alder is also board chairman of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions and sits on the Financial Stability Board’s Plenary and its Steering Committee.
He started his career as a lawyer in London in 1984 and practised in Hong Kong for more than 20 years. He was executive director of the SFC’s corporate finance division from 2001 to 2004, when he returned to the international law firm Herbert Smith as head of Asia.
Alder attained a bachelor of laws degree from the University of London and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master of laws degree.
His tenure of 11 years covers a third of the commission’s history and he implemented reforms including a new listing regime, Stock Connect schemes with the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, Bond Connect as well as the most recent ETF Connect.
