23/11/2011 Author: Will Wainewright

Kinetic and ACA to open new Hong Kong offices

Kinetic Partners and ACA Compliance Group, the regulatory and compliance advisory firms, are both opening new Hong Kong offices in the new year to meet growing demand for compliance facilities from Asia’s booming financial services industry, HFMWeek has learned.

Kinetic, which already has bases in London, New York, Geneva, Dublin and Cayman, said its first Asian office will initially focus on instructing clients on regulatory regimes in Hong Kong, the US and Britain.

Julian Korek, a founding member at the firm, said: “We have seen a keen interest from financial firms based in Hong Kong to better understand the global regulatory landscape and how that is influencing their regulatory requirements.”
Alongside regulation, the new office will offer tax structuring and compliance advice and develop a team to work alongside staff in other jurisdictions, particularly on SPV and LLP structures based in the Caribbean with commercial interests in Asia.

ACA Compliance, also due to open its first Asian office early next year, has provided services relating to the SEC to clients in Asia for a decade, but told HFMWeek a “sharp increase in client demand for compliance services” had prompted the move.

“The implications of the Dodd-Frank legislation extend far beyond US shores and, as our London office has already observed, there is a resultant uptick in the need for SEC regulatory expertise worldwide,” said Gina Galang, a partner at ACA Compliance, who will lead the new office.

“Investors are calling for managers to pay increased attention to regulatory and operational compliance matters,” she added. “Given the current state of the industry, investors are requiring a higher level of compliance from firms before committing any capital.”   

The firm, headquartered in New York, employs more than 100 compliance staff across 16 offices in the US and Europe. Galang said the new office, which will consist of existing and newly hired staff, will help ACA “build a greater global presence”.