Disputes relating to the banking and finance industry are becoming prevalent across the world, due to the rising awareness of investors’ rights, increasing complexity of financial products and number of mis-selling incidents and frauds. Prompt and effective actions are required to prevent the occurrence of banking and financial disputes, resolve them should they arise and more importantly, minimize monetary loss and reputational harm.

At ONC Lawyers, our litigation and dispute resolution team works closely with our banking team to advise multinational and local banks, securities companies, funds and other financial institutions on the following areas:

• loan recovery and enforcement of securities including repossession or sale of securities such as real properties and shares;
• repossession or sale of securities such as real properties and shares;
• recovery under financing arrangements including factoring, hire purchase and finance lease;
• commercial frauds;
• claims by customers for misrepresentation, negligence and breach of trust;
• asset identification and tracing and protection of assets including injunction and prohibition orders;
• corporate rescue;
• loan restructuring; and
• documentary credit and trade financing disputes involving letters of credit, bills of exchange, guarantees and indemnities.

For banking, securities and regulated activities, we also advise banks and financial institutions on the following compliance and regulatory matters:

• issues arising out of the Banking Ordinance, the SFO, HKMA circulars and guidelines, the Code of Banking Practice and the Listing Rules; and
• investigations and complaints received by regulatory authorities on issues including know-your-customer (KYC) process, product due diligence (PDD), anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF).

We also provide legal services for companies, individual borrowers and investors to handle their disputes with or claims against banks and financial institutions, particularly disputes involving financial investment products such as accumulators and equity-linked notes.

If you would like to know more about our banking & finance practice or how we can help your business, please contact us at (852) 2810 1212 or at cc@onc.hk.

Please refer to our articles in ‘Knowledge’