Laura Cha: Building foundations from Hong Kong to China

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Laura Cha has a rare claim to fame: she is the only person to have worked at a top level in the securities regulators of both Hong Kong and China.

She started out at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in 1991, when the regulator was still trying to rebuild Hong Kong’s market after the 1987 crash. 

“Hong Kong was basically a local domestic stock market,” she says. 

She was there for the breakthrough moment of Chinese state-owned enterprises arriving on the Hong Kong market, bringing international attention and greater diversification. This was the birth of the H-share market. 

“It’s not just that we attracted all these listings,” she says, “it was two things together – international interest and raised standards – that have attracted confidence in our market consistently.”