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Enoch Yiu

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has seen significant improvement in the gender diversity of listed companies but the bourse operator has not made progress in the area of mobility for independent directors, exchange data showed.
One in five listed companies in Hong Kong have boards where women comprise 30 per cent of members, HKEX chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing said on Friday.
“Gender diversity makes good business sense,” Tong said in a speech at a special gong-striking ceremony on Friday at the HKEX Connect Hall to mark International Women’s Day on Sunday.
“If corporate governance is about doing what makes good business sense in the long term, then gender diversity is good corporate governance.”
HKEX is using regulatory policies to promote gender diversity, including a listing rule that banned single-gender boards from January 2025.

As a result, only 21 – or 0.7 per cent of Hong Kong’s 2,709 listed companies – had no women on their boards as of February, according to HKEX data. Most of these either could not find a female director or their shares have been suspended for an extended period.
This marked a dramatic improvement from when the rule was announced in 2021, when more than 800 firms, or 32 per cent of the total, had no female directors.
Tong recalled that when he first started his career in Britain in the 1970s, women had few opportunities in the business world.
“Back then, the big news was women being allowed to join the stock exchange there as traders,” Tong said. “What has happened since the early days of my career is that limiting the roles of half the population came to be recognised for what it is: a huge waste of talent potential.”
Tong said 20 per cent of Hong Kong-listed companies had boards where women comprised more than 30 per cent of directors. Overall, 21.5 per cent of 22,444 company directors were women as of February, up from 17.4 per cent in 2023, according to exchange data.

A KPMG report in October showed that women held 45 per cent of senior leadership roles – including CEOs – in banks, asset management companies, insurers and fintech firms in the city, an increase of 11 percentage points from 2018.
While the exchange has achieved significant progress in gender diversity, its new policies on independent non-executive directors (INED) have yet to result in big changes.
In 2024, the exchange announced rule changes to limit independent directorships to a maximum of six per person, effective from July 2028. The bourse also set a tenure cap for INEDs at nine years, but that would only take effect in 2032.
The long transitional period meant there has been little change to long-serving INEDs. As of February, 1,557 INEDs have served on the boards of 872 listed companies for more than nine years, with 21 listed companies having all their directors serve for more than nine years, the exchange data showed. This compares with the 1,500 INEDs who had served as directors in 810 companies for longer than nine years in 2024.
But the overboarding of INEDs has improved. Only seven INEDs served more than six firms among the 56 listed companies in February, down from 23 INEDs that served more than six companies among 181 listed companies in 2024, exchange data showed.
“Independent directors are expected to offer insights to safeguard the interests of small shareholders,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, permanent honorary president of the Institute of Securities Dealers. “It would be good corporate governance practice to see more mobility of INEDs and to prevent someone from overboarding to ensure they have sufficient time to serve the companies.”


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Telstra

Business

Companies

HKEX is using regulatory policies to promote gender diversity, including a listing rule that bans single-gender boards from January 2025


HKEX is using regulatory policies to promote gender diversity, including a listing rule that bans single-gender boards from January 2025.


ESG investing

China

Hong Kong

HKEX sees more women on boards but little progress on tenure cap rules

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}HKEX is using regulatory policies to promote gender diversity, including a listing rule that bans single-gender boards from January 2025

HKEX is using regulatory policies to promote gender diversity, including a listing rule that bans single-gender boards from January 2025