Friday 20th December 2013

Dear Reader,

4 newsletters in one week! Quite exhausting. We shall now retire with our helpers to the North Pole to attend to other business. You'll see below our comment on the Consumer Council supermarket report. The writing is on the wall for HK's cartels and for the fat 9.99% post-tax return on fixed assets in the electricty scheme of control, which expires on 31-Dec-2018 - hence the plan of Power Assets Holdings Ltd to sell up to 70% of HK Electric. Caveat emptor.

NEW ARTICLE
Why did the SFC kill HSBC's Stockmax?
Two years after the SFC shut retail investors out HSBC's automated trading system, an SFC announcement gives some indication of what happened, but still leaves retail investors wondering why a pioneering service which offered potential price improvement and competition for HKEx's monopoly stock market was not allowed. (20-Dec-2013)

RECENTLY ON WEBB-SITE
SHKF's abuse of HKID numbers
Next in our series on the abuse of HKID numbers as passwords comes stockbroker Sung Hung Kai Financial, which uses them to "secure" e-mailed statements. (19-Dec-2013)

Citibank's abuse of HKID numbers
We urge another bank to cease and desist from treating the HKID as a password. (18-Dec-2013)

IN OTHER NEWS
Supermarkets: Consumer Council calls for Competition Commission probe
Company media release, 19-Dec-2013
Now you understand why Hutchison Whampoa was trying to sell Park'N Shop. They still have a while to enjoy their margins: the Competition Ordinance was pased in Jun-2012 but won't take effect for some time, so anti-competitive behaviour (if any) is still legal in HK. The Commission was appointed on 1-May-2013 but doesn't even have a web site yet. The Government does not seem anxious to get things moving.

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