The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
 
     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today issued joint consultation conclusions on the annual update to the list of Financial Services Providers (FSP List) (Note 1) under the clearing obligation for OTC derivative transactions (Note 2).
      
     Pursuant to market feedback, the HKMA and the SFC will proceed with their proposals on the FSP List in the joint consultation (Note 3) with some fine tuning. The consultation conclusions paper can be downloaded from the websites of the HKMA or the SFC.
        
Notes:
 
1. The FSP List includes entities that meet the following two criteria –
(i)  They belong to a group of companies appearing on the list of global systemically important banks published by the Financial Stability Board, or on the list of dealer groups which undertook to the OTC Derivatives Supervisors Group to work collaboratively with central counterparties, infrastructure providers and global supervisors to continue to make structural improvements to the global OTC derivatives markets; and
(ii)  They are members of the largest central counterparties offering clearing for interest rate swaps in the United States, Europe, Japan and Hong Kong.
 
2. The current clearing regime covers transactions between major dealers where at least one of them is a prescribed person (ie, an authorized institution, an approved money broker or a licensed corporation). Transactions in standardised interest rate swaps in G4 currencies (ie, US dollar, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen) and Hong Kong dollar between a prescribed person which has reached the prescribed clearing threshold and another major dealer which is not a prescribed person also have to be centrally cleared. To that end, the concept of FSP was introduced to identify such major dealers outside of Hong Kong.
 
3. See the April 2019 joint consultation paper on enhancements to the OTC derivatives regulatory regime for Hong Kong to mandate the use of Unique Transaction Identifiers for the reporting obligation, revise the list of designated jurisdictions for the masking relief of the reporting obligation and update the FSP List under the clearing obligation for OTC derivative transactions.

     The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, today (June 28) attended the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders' Summit in Osaka, Japan, as part of the delegation of the People's Republic of China.

     The Summit this year covers a wide range of topics ranging from the global economy, trade and investment to innovation and employment. Mr Chan has attended different meetings.
      
     Tomorrow (June 29), Mr Chan will continue to take part in the G20 Leaders' Summit and will return to Hong Kong in the evening.

  

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is today (June 28) investigating a case of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection, and hence reminded the public to maintain good personal, food and environmental hygiene against intestinal infections.

     The case involves a one-year-old boy with good past health, who has presented with fever and diarrhoea since June 18. He was admitted to a private hospital on the same day and was discharged on June 20. The patient has been in a stable condition all along.

     His stool specimen grew STEC upon laboratory testing.

     Initial enquiries of the CHP revealed that the patient had no travel history during the incubation period. Investigations are ongoing.

     "Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium that is commonly found in the gut of humans and warm-blooded animals. Most strains of E. coli are harmless. Some strains, however, such as STEC, can produce powerful toxins and cause severe food-borne disease. The most recognised serogroup of STEC is E. coli O157:H7," a spokesman for the CHP explained.

     Preventive measures for STEC infection are similar to those recommended for other food-borne diseases. The public are advised to observe good personal and food hygiene:
 

• Adopt the 5 Keys to Food Safety in handling food, i.e. Choose (choose safe raw materials), Clean (keep hands and utensils clean), Separate (separate raw and cooked food), Cook (cook thoroughly) and Safe Temperature (keep food at a safe temperature) to prevent food-borne diseases;
• Wash hands properly with liquid soap and water before handling food, after handling raw meat or poultry and before eating, and after going to the toilet or changing diapers;
• Cook food and boil water thoroughly before consumption. When cooking or reheating, the core temperature of the food should reach at least 75 degrees Celsius;
• Avoid consumption of unpasteurised milk or undercooked food; and
• Consult your doctor immediately if you have symptoms of STEC infection, particularly bloody diarrhoea.
   

     The public may visit the CHP's STEC page for more information.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
 
     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today that additional 60 sets of financial data published on the HKMA's website are made available via Open Application Programming Interface (API) for free use by the public starting from today.
      
     To facilitate more convenient and efficient retrieval of information and data from the HKMA's website by the public, as well as to set an example for the banking industry to promote the wide adoption of Open API, the HKMA has been opening up financial data and important information published on its website via API by phases since July 2018.  Following the opening up of 70 datasets earlier, the HKMA today opens up another 60 sets of financial data, covering statistics related to banking, monetary system, debt securities, etc.  This brings the total sets of APIs available on the HKMA’s website to 130 as originally planned.
      
     The HKMA will review the coverage of APIs on its website from time to time, and will launch more APIs in the future where appropriate.
      
     For more details, please visit the HKMA's Open API portal (apidocs.hkma.gov.hk/).

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     Details of the meetings of the Legislative Council (LegCo) and its Committees to be held in the LegCo Complex during the week from July 1 to 5 are available in the meeting schedule attached.
 
     The information in the meeting schedule is subject to change. Please refer to the "LegCo Calendar" on the LegCo Website (www.legco.gov.hk) for the latest details of meetings.
 
     Members of the public are welcome to observe open meetings of LegCo and its Committees. Interested individuals and groups are advised to make advance booking of seats by calling the LegCo Secretariat at 3919 3399 during office hours. Members of the public can also listen to or watch all open meetings via the "Webcast" system on the LegCo Website.