Laura Cha considers two queries carefully: why she has accepted the job of chair of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and why now.
“I ask myself these questions all the time,” she says. “The exchange is the only homegrown financial institution here. Hong Kong has become mired in bickering and has deteriorated. We need to bring both the exchange and the city up to date.”
Ms Cha, 68, is no stranger to the securities markets in Hong Kong and China, having served both as a senior official on the Securities and Futures Commission, or SFC, of Hong Kong, the exchange’s regulatory body, and on its mainland counterpart, the China Securities Regulatory Commission.