HONG KONG: Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, operator of Asia's third-biggest stock market, is ready to handle yuan products when it is allowed to introduce them, Chief Executive Paul Chow said.

"We're able to support RMB products if the policy is in place," Chow said yesterday at a media briefing in Hong Kong, adding, "We should not expect them to come in great numbers in the next few years. But we are ready, if the market is ready."

Chow said Charles Li, Hong Kong Exchanges' chief executive designate, will work on developing yuan products.

Li, 48, joined the exchange October 16, and will succeed Chow effective January 16. Chow will retire January 15.

Beijing-born Li has about 20 years of experience in investment banking and legal practice, according to the stock exchange website.

The 48-year-old was previously China chairman for JPMorgan Chase & Co, which he joined in 2003 from Merrill Lynch & Co, according to a June 3 stock exchange statement.

Prior to investment banking, Li practiced law with two New York-based firms, the statement said. He was a Beijing-based editor and reporter for the official China Daily newspaper in the mid-1980s, and worked on an oil field in northern China's Bohai Bay in the late 1970s, the June statement noted.

Bloomberg News

(HK Edition 01/13/2010 page4)