The Isle of Man has today (18 October) been notified by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong that it has been accepted as an "approved jurisdiction" for the purposes of the listing of its companies on that exchange.

In doing so, the Isle of Man joins a select group of countries which have been accepted by the Hong Kong Listing Committee and in the Isle of Man's case, companies incorporated under the two main bodies of company legislation in the Isle of Man – the Companies Acts 1931-2004 and the Companies Act 2006 - have been accepted. This means that a company incorporated in the Isle of Man can, using the model that has been accepted, now seek a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

This important recognition has been achieved on the basis that the Isle of Man has been able to demonstrate equivalence in its standards of investor and shareholder protection to those available under Hong Kong company law, a further prerequisite being that the Isle of Man is a full signatory to the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding.