Agenda

Iris Ouyang is a reporter at Bloomberg News covering FX, rates and fixed income with a focus on China.

Over the past eight years, she has reported on China’s macroeconomy and financial markets from Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and from Chicago, Washington D.C., Buenos Aires.

Before she joined Bloomberg, Iris worked at the South China Morning Post and Market News International and covered topics ranging from economic policies, regulations, the yuan, fixed income to businesses. She also reported for English and Chinese media outlets including American Banker, MarketWatch, U.S. News & World Report, Caixin and Phoenix in the U.S. before she returned to Asia.

Iris graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a Master’s degree, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Jimmy Jim is the Managing Executive Officer & Head of Global Markets Department of ICBC (Asia), a member of Executive Committee since 2014. He is also the Alternate Chief Executive of ICBC Hong Kong Branch. His professional teams manage investment portfolio for the Bank and provide clients with diversified financial market services. Jimmy has extensive experience in banking and investment industry and was appointed senior positions with leading international banks. He has worked across Hong Kong, Tokyo and Australia with extensive experience in trading and sales of precious metals, financial and debt capital market products, ALM and portfolio management.

Dr. Jim is a CFA Charter holder and a CPA (Aust). He holds a Doctor Degree of Business Administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master Degree of Applied Finance from Macquarie University and a Bachelor Degree of Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was the President of CFA Society Hong Kong from 2010 to 2013 and is a member of Advisory Board in the current term. He is also the Executive Board Member and Fellow Member of Treasury Markets Association Hong Kong (TMA) and a member of Hong Kong Academy of Finance (AoF). He is an Adjunct Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is appointed by HKSAR government as a member of the Banking and Finance Training Board, Vocational Training Council. Dr. Jim is appointed the Chairman of Investment Committee of Hong Kong Hospital Authority.

Charles Lam is the Head of Markets for Citi in Hong Kong.

In this role, Charles is responsible for all Markets businesses, with key focus in developing and implementing global product delivery strategies for the region, leading senior regulatory and client relationships, and establishing and maintaining strong risk management discipline and culture.

Since joining Salomon Smith Barney in 1998, he has held numerous sales and trading leadership roles across multiple geographies, championing the distribution and trading businesses to record revenues and market leading positions.

Charles is a member of Citi Hong Kong Executive Committee, Board Member of Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, and he serves as Alternate Chief Executive of Citibank NA Hong Kong.

He represents Citi as Executive Board Member at the Treasury Markets Association (TMA) of Hong Kong, Board Executive Committee Member at the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA), and a Board Member at the OTC Clearing Hong Kong Limited. 

Charles holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Engineering degrees from the University of Cambridge, and an EMBA degree jointly from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Charles is a CFA charter holder

Freddy Wong joined Invesco in 2019 and is Managing Director - Head of Asia Pacific, Fixed Income. He is responsible for the overall leadership and management of Invesco Fixed Income business and investment in the region.

Freddy has over 20 years of experience in the financial industry across Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Invesco, he was the Chief Investment Officer of Fidelity International in Shanghai where he oversaw all Fixed Income investments for China. Freddy worked for Fidelity in various capacities managing Fixed Income since 2003.

Freddy was named as Asia’s Most Astute Investor in G3 Bond Market by The Asset Magazine for six consecutive years from 2011-16. He has been the Co-Chairman for ASIFMA China Capital Markets since 2021. He is a member of the Academy of Finance under Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He currently serves as a member of the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited - FIC Advisory Panel. He was also a steering committee member of Bond Market Development in Hong Kong for HKSAR in 2022.

Freddy holds a Master of Finance and a Bachelor of Engineering from The University of Hong Kong.

Ms. Zhang, Head of bond investment and trading department, FICC, at CITICS. She joined the firm in 2012 as senior trader and prior to that, she worked for Nomura in New York City as swaption flow trader and later prop trader. She has more than a decade experience in trading US Treasury as well as various China rates products. She is an expert of rates derivatives and one of the major advisors in the launching of CGB Futures by China Financial Future Exchange in 2013.  She holds a B.S. degree from Central University of Finance and Economics, a M.S. degree from Columbia University. 

Dr Tung is the Director & Head of Policy Research for the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC). He leads the team responsible for conducting policy research and industry surveys for the formulation of proposals to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and financial regulators.
 

Prior to joining the FSDC, Dr Tung was the Director of Capital Markets Policy for CFA Institute, covering research areas related to capital market structures (e.g. corporate governance, regulatory environment) in the Asia Pacific region. Before that, he was the Senior Economist for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, where he oversaw its macroeconomic research, as well as labour- and international trade-related policy research functions. He also served as an economist and a research analyst for banks, a trade credit insurer and a Hong Kong-based think-tank.
 

Dr Tung holds a doctoral degree in organisational leadership from Northeastern University in Boston, and is a Fellow of CPA Australia. He received a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree, both in Economics, from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, respectively.
In his personal capacity, Dr Tung sits on the Citizens Advisory Committee on Community Relations of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and is the Convenor of its Media Publicity and Community Research Sub-Committee. He is a director of the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department’s Youth Engagement Programme and a member of the Editorial Board of FinanceAsia.

Patrick Law is head of Asia Pacific Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) Trading at Bank of America. He is a member of the firm’s Asia Pacific Executive Committee and is based in Hong Kong.

He joined the Bank in 2013 and was previously responsible for the Global Markets trading businesses in APAC Foreign Exchange and North Asia Local Markets. He has been Chief Executive at Banc of America Securities Asia Limited since 2020.

Prior to joining Bank of America, Patrick spent nine years at Barclays Capital where he helped build their Emerging Markets trading business in Asia. He also spent nine years at JPMorgan in various proprietary trading and market-making roles in Hong Kong, Toronto and New York.

Patrick received his BBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, MBA from the University of Chicago and DBA from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has been a Chartered Financial Analyst since 2004.

Ms Charmaine Li was appointed as General Manager of Institutional Banking Division of China Construction Bank (Asia) since 3 Jan 2022. Charmaine has over 20 years of solid and broad experience in Wholesale Banking Coverage role across Regional Strategies Accounts, Commodities and Agricultural Trading, Multi-National Corporates, Financial Institutions including Banks and Non-Banks clienteles.
 

Prior to joining CCBA, she worked in Standard Chartered Bank HK for 17 years of which based in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen. In Standard Chartered, she started her career with Transaction Banking as Trade, Factoring and Cash specialist. She took up various coverage roles and promoted as South Regional Head of China to support banking relationship development with MNCs, Hong Kong Blue Chip and non-bank FIs domiciled in southern part of China and Hong Kong.

Ms Li graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and obtained her Master Degree for Corporate Administration from City University. Ms Li was a Chartered Company Secretary during 2004-2011.

Karen has over 25 years of experience in corporates and investment banking with Standard Chartered in Greater China. In the current role, Karen is responsible for spearheading the franchise strategy associated with the developments and business opportunities arising from the RMB internationalisation agenda and specifically, the opening of Chinese Mainland’s capital and financial markets. Immediately prior to her current role, Karen was Regional Head, Business Management for Client Coverage in Greater China and North Asia where she led a team focusing on business enablement, performance management and governance. Throughout the years Karen had also held various frontline and management positions spanning client relationship management, strategic planning, loan syndications and debt capital markets based in Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong.

Mr. Chengdong Zhang joined Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited in March 2022 as Chief Dealer of Global Markets. Mr. Zhang has many years of trading experience in various markets with special expertise in the interest rate market. Prior to joining Bank of China HK Ltd., Mr. Zhang worked in CITI Bank. Mr. Zhang holds Bachelor degree in Mathematics from Fudan University 

Philippe Dirckx is the Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income at ASIFMA. Based in Hong Kong, he leads ASIFMA’s Fixed Income initiatives for its 130+ member firms across Asia.

Philippe Dirckx is an international banking executive with broad experience in banking, technology, and covering financial markets from trading to post-trade. He has also been recognised as an industry expert on market infrastructure developments with his focus being on the Asian region for the past 20 years,

Before joining us at ASIFMA, Philippe was the Founder and Managing Director of Senfinasia, providing consulting services to market infrastructures, financial Institutions and technology companies. Prior to this, he was Managing Director, Head of Markets & Initiatives Asia Pacific at SWIFT, and lead a team of industry experts responsible for driving the execution of SWIFT’s strategy in the region. Philippe was also the Programme Director for Australia’s New Payment Platform (NPP) responsible for the delivery of SWIFT infrastructure to the industry. Before joining SWIFT, Philippe was Managing Director and Regional Head of Intermediaries and Market Infrastructures with Citi Securities Services for Asia Pacific. Preceding that, he was Head of Asia Pacific for Euroclear and worked for Fortis in a variety of executive roles in both Europe and Asia.

Philippe holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Louvain-la-Neuve University, Belgium and an Executive Master’s Degree in Management from the Solvay Business School in Brussels.

Scott O’Malia is Chief Executive Officer of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA), a position he has held since August 2014. At ISDA, Scott has led the Association’s drive to promote safe and efficient markets and develop industry standards and legal documentation. This includes a push to develop common standards to enable greater technology applications, bringing greater innovation through scalable fintech and regtech solutions.

ISDA is a global derivatives association that represents all derivatives users on key industry issues, including trading, clearing, reporting, margin, capital and legal standards. During Scott’s tenure, Scott has brought greater focus on market infrastructure issues – in particular, the cross-border harmonization of global central counterparty regulation, trade execution and data rules.

Prior to joining ISDA, Scott served as Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). While at the CFTC, between October 2009 and August 2014, Scott revived the Technology Advisory Committee, and led an active agenda investigating data standardization, highlighting trade execution rules and developing a better understanding of how algorithmic trading operates in regulated markets. 

William started as an Aeronautic engineer in UK after graduating from Imperial College in 1988.  He moved back to Hong Kong in 1994 as EM rates trader in Chase Manhattan Bank.

In 1998, William joined Goldman Sachs and was promoted as Co-Head of Macro Trading, Asia Pacific.  He then joined Merrill Lynch in 2002 as Managing Director to develop Asia Currency and Rates Trading businesses.

In 2005, William joined HSBC HK to run Asian rates trading.  He was promoted to Head of Rates and Credit, Asia Pacific in 2016.   Since May 2020, William has expanded his role to Head of FICC Trading in Asia.  In 2023, he has been added further responsibility of Head of Markets and Securities Services in HK.

George Sun is Head of Global Markets for Greater China, responsible for leading and developing BNP Paribas’ fixed income and equities business in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Prior to this, George was Head of FXLM & Commodity Derivatives Institutional Sales and Head of Domestic Clients for Global Markets APAC – responsible for FX, rates and commodity derivatives businesses with the Bank’s institutional clients, as well as domestic clients in the region.

George has over 20 years of experience in Asia, the US and Europe. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, he worked at Standard Chartered Bank, where he was Head of Institutional Sales in Asia Pacific and Head of Corporate Sales in North Asia. Previously, he was Co-Head of Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities Sales in Asia Pacific ex-Japan at Nomura International; Head of Credit Sales in Asia Pacific ex-Japan at Lehman Brothers; and Managing Director in Global Structured Credit Products at Merrill Lynch. He also worked as a structured finance credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s in New York and London, and began his career as a corporate lawyer at the law firm of Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York.

George holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University, and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

Robert is the Deputy Head of FICC at CICC. He joined the firm in 2008 and was the Head of Debt Capital Markets business and the Head of Fixed Income at CICC WMS. Robert has 25 years of experience in fixed income business in mainland China, Hong Kong, and the US. Prior to joining CICC, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Wachovia in the US.

Ricco Zhang is Senior Director, Asia Pacific of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) based in Hong Kong. Mr. Zhang is responsible for ICMA’s development in Greater China and works very closely with regulators, financial institutions and other organizations who are active at the capital markets in the region to promote and maintain the best market practice. He has previously worked for international law firms, investment banks and other financial institutions engaged in capital market transactions and mergers & acquisitions in Asia and has extensive experience as a market practitioner. Mr. Zhang graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong.

James Fok is the Chief Commercial Officer of the Central Moneymarkets Unit of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Previously, he served for a decade as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (SEHK: 388), where he played a major role in a number of landmark Chinese capital market internationalisation initiatives, including the launch of the Shanghai- Hong Kong Stock Connect programme (2014), Bond Connect (2017) and the Hong Kong market's Listing Reforms (2018). In his earlier career, he worked as an investment banker in both Europe and Asia, specialising in the financial services sector.

James has written and spoken extensively about market structure issues and the intersection between geopolitics and international finance. He is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE: ASC), an Executive Board Member of the International Securities Services Association, and a Distinguished Nonresident Fellow of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World. He has also previously served on the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s Fintech Advisory Group (2023-24), as an International Member of Ireland for Finance's Industry Advisory Committee (2021-23), and on the Financial Services Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council (2014-21).

Chong is widely acknowledged as a leading practitioner in sophisticated derivatives and capital market products and heads the firm’s derivatives and structured products practice in Asia. 

Chong has been closely involved in the development of derivatives in Mainland China since mid-90’s and has advised market participants on key initiatives including the drafting of the Futures and Derivatives Law and master derivative agreements including the NAFMII and SAC documentation.

More recently, Chong has been involved in initiatives involving financial markets infrastructures (FMIs) including the introduction of OTC clearing at OTC Clear Hong Kong and Shanghai Clearing House as well as the recent launch of the innovative Swap Connect Scheme. He also advised on the establishment of various innovative Chinese Connect schemes (including Stock Connect, Bond Connect as well as Wealth management Connect) and the internationalization program of various Chinese futures exchanges and clearing houses.   

Admitted in England and Wales, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and New Zealand, Chong holds a BCL (Hons) degree from Oxford University and an LLB (Hons) degree from Victoria University of Wellington. He is a member of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance (AoF) and listed as a Finance Expert by the P.R.I.M.E Finance based in the Hague. Chong is a CFA charter holder and co-author of “Hong Kong Derivatives: Law & Practice” (Lexis Nexis).

Edmund Ng co-founded Eastfort Asset Management with Brummer & Partners in 2015 and he is currently the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the fund. Eastfort AM fund products focus mainly on China fixed income market. Before establishing Eastfort AM, he was the Head of Direct Investment Division at Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) from early 2007 to mid-2015. In that capacity, he was responsible for all the internally managed portfolios. Prior to joining HKMA, he spent 20 years in JP Morgan where he was a Managing Director of the Asia-ex-Japan market business and managed trading activities of 8 regional centres.  Mr Ng graduated from University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Microbiology.  Currently, he is an Independent Non-executive Director of the OTC Clearing company board.