Wednesday, 16th October 2019, Citic Tower, 1 Tim Mei Ave, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Sou is the HSBC Head of Regulatory Affairs, Asia Pacific. She read Law at Cambridge University and is a Barrister-at-law in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She is a Mediator and Arbitrator with extensive Compliance and Risk experience. She was instrumental in the drafting of the Mediation Ordinance for Hong Kong. As inaugural CEO, she set up the Financial Dispute Resolution Centre for the Hong Kong Government, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission. She was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Investor and Financial Education Council (formerly Investor Education Centre). She was Head of Human Rights Policy at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission and Head of Legal at New Zealand Funds Management Limited. As Senior Crown Counsel in the Commercial Crimes Unit of the Hong Kong Attorney General’s Chambers, she prosecuted various leading cases and represented the Hong Kong Government at the Privy Council.

Nelson Chow has been appointed to the present position from September 2016 with responsibilities for facilitating the healthy development of the fintech ecosystem in Hong Kong, and promoting Hong Kong as a fintech hub in Asia. He joined the HKMA in 2004 and was responsible for the supervision of banks' technology risk management and business continuity planning, as well as the formulation of related policies and guidelines. He was the Deputy Chief Representative of the New York Office in 2010. After returning to Hong Kong in 2013, he took up responsibilities to supervise banks' operational risk management and perform macro-prudential data analysis. Prior to joining the HKMA, Mr Chow was Vice President of JP Morgan Chase Bank and was responsible for information risk management of the Asia Pacific region. 

Heidi Chui is a partner of Stevenson, Wong & Co., heading both the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department and Banking and Finance department, and had served as the internal legal advisor for several major Chinese banks in Hong Kong.

She often handles disputes involving cross-border elements, including shareholder disputes, derivative actions, petitions relating to unfair prejudicial conduct and breach of fiduciary duties.

She acts for banks, financial institutions, listed companies, directors, shareholders and investors in urgent applications regarding affairs of the company. She also advises liquidators and receivers in insolvency and restructuring matters. She has been nominated as Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year by Asian Legal Business Hong Kong Legal Awards in 2019 and has been recognised as a leading practitioner in both Dispute Resolution and Banking and Finance by Asialaw Profiles 2019.

Patricia is the Acting Group General Counsel for WeLab, a leading homegrown FinTech company with one of the first virtual banks established in Hong Kong. WeLab provides seamless digital financial services to over 40 million individual customers, as well as B2B enterprise solutions to offer fintech-enabled solutions in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Indonesia.

Patricia is a founding member of WeLab virtual bank and key contributor on regulatory, compliance and risk issues during the application process, leading up to the grant of licence in April 2019. She manages the dialogue with regulators and has built the WeLab virtual bank legal and compliance function from the ground up. Patricia also advises on WeLab Group’s fundraising activities, business partnerships and data privacy compliance framework.

Prior to joining WeLab, Patricia was Head of Regulatory for Private Wealth Solutions at HSBC Private Bank and Senior Legal Counsel at HSBC Global Banking and Markets. Before going in-house, Patricia was with Linklaters in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, where she specialized in derivatives, structured finance and financial regulations.

Rockson Hsu is the CEO of ZA Bank, which is one of the first three virtual banks in Hong Kong approved by the HKMA in March 2019. Rockson has 27 years of banking experience in wholesale & investment banking and risk management with major foreign and local banks in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Prior to joining ZA Bank in May 2019, he was the CRO of a HK-listed bank. Rockson graduated from NYU Stern School of Business with a Bachelor degree in Finance and International Business.

Urszula McCormack is one of Asia’s leading blockchain and financial regulatory lawyers, with a focus on emerging technologies and financial crime. In 2018, she was recognised as a Financial Times Top 10 Legal Innovator of the Year.

Urszula advises global banks, custodians, regulators, multilaterals, DLT developers, payment providers, asset managers and innovators on creating new products and platforms, compliance and licensing. She speaks internationally on digital transformation, virtual assets, digital identity and algorithmic design. 

Urszula is a member of the SFC Fintech Advisory Group, Co-Chair of the Fintech Association Policy & Advocacy Committee and a member of the ASIFMA Fintech Working Group. She is admitted in Australia, England & Wales and Hong Kong, and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

Eliot Simpson is a Partner at Appleby and the head of the Dispute Resolution practice in Hong Kong. He trained and qualified (in 1992) at Clifford Chance in London, specializing in corporate disputes. Since 2000 he has practised offshore, working and qualifying in the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands. Eliot relocated to Hong Kong in 2012, establishing Appleby’s Asian disputes practice, which is focused on BVI, Cayman Islands and Bermuda disputes as well as corporate and financial restructuring and insolvency. Eliot has been ranked as a leading individual in the Asian offshore market by Legal 500 and a highly regarded leading lawyer by IFLR 1000 as well as by Chambers Asia Pacific.

Charles To is a Partner of Ella Cheong & Alan Chiu, Solicitors & Notaries. Charles has a diversified practice covering commercial, corporate, entertainment, licensing, intellectual property, advertising, data privacy, e-commerce, employment, and general commercial matters in the TMT industry.

Prior to joining Ella Cheong & Alan Chiu, Charles had extensive practical in-house experience where he served as Senior Legal Counsel for Tencent’s Technology Transactions Group and Fox Networks’ APAC Senior Legal Counsel where he was responsible for advising the businesses’ international commercialization of its services and platforms, covering music, video OTT, mobile games, advertising, social media, and cloud technology.

Dr Christopher To is the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and has qualifications in Computing, Engineering and Law. He is a Chartered Arbitrator, Certified Adjudicator and an Accredited Mediator.