Financial dispute centre heads named

March 01, 2012

Teresa Cheng has been appointed Chairman of the Financial Dispute Resolution Centre Limited, and Sou Chiam as Chief Executive Officer, effective March 1.
 
Ms Cheng and four non-official members - Brian Fung, Connie Lau, Barbara Shiu and Anna Wu - are appointed for two-year term.
 
Ms Cheng is a senior counsel. She is currently a Vice President of the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration, Vice President of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration, Vice Chairperson of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes arbitrator.  
 
Ms Chiam is a barrister-at-law and was Senior Legal Counsel and Head of the Human Rights Policy Unit in the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. She was the Secretary to the Mediation Task Force. Her term is for three years. She will spearhead the preparatory work to enable the centre to be in operation by mid-2012.
 
The centre was set up to administer an independent and impartial dispute resolution scheme with an aim to resolve monetary disputes between individuals and financial institutions through "mediation first, arbitration next". Financial institutions regulated by the Monetary Authority and the Securities & Futures Commission will be obligated to be members of the scheme.
 
The Financial Services & the Treasury Bureau said it was confident the public would recognise the use of the centre's dispute-resolution mechanism to resolve monetary disputes in a speedy manner fair to all parties concerned.