Hong Kong's market regulator is examining whether international investment banks and smaller local sponsors did adequate due diligence on the $31.8bn in initial public offerings in the territory last year.
The move reflects the Securities and Futures Commission's concern that IPO sponsors allowed unsuitable companies to float in Hong Kong as it overtook London and New York to become the biggest IPO market.
“The market is hot and when the market is hot there is a temptation to relax standards,” Martin Wheatley, SFC chief executive, told the Financial Times. “The concern is to keep the quality level high so we don't have a number of failures in two or three years' time.”