"Hong Kong names aide to territory's leader as new central bank chief | AboutHK.Com - more information about HK"
|  AP
An aide to Hong Kong's leader and former bank executive was Friday named to head the territory's central bank as the Chinese financial center emerges from the economic crisis.
Norman Chan, 55, will lead the Hong Kong Monetary Authority starting in October, replacing the bank's current chief executive, Joseph Yam, who announced his resignation in May.
Chan has run the office of Hong Kong's leader since July 2007. Before that, he served as vice chairman for London-based lender Standard Chartered Bank in Asia. Other previous government positions include executive director and deputy chief executive of the territory's central bank.
The appointment comes as Hong Kong recovers from the financial crisis that roiled its markets and dragged it into recession, and as it works to preserve its status as a financial capital.
The authority was sharply criticized in the last year amid accusations it failed to properly regulate banks that sold investors exotic and now potentially worthless derivatives tied to failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers.
Yam, who has served in the post for 16 years, also generated controversy because of his pay. Among the world's highest paid central bankers, he raked in almost $12 million Hong Kong dollars (about $1.5 million) in 2008.
By comparison, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made a little over $190,000 last year.
Chan will earn 32 percent less than Yam with an annual salary of $770,000 a year over a five-year term, plus "variable pay" of about $200,000 in the first year, the government said.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and has a separate financial system and currency. |
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