Joseph Yam
Encyclopedia
The Honourable
The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...

 
Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, GBM
Grand Bauhinia Medal
The Grand Bauhinia Medal the highest award under the Hong Kong honours and awards system, is to recognise the selected person's lifelong and highly significant contribution to the well-being of Hong Kong. The awardee is entitled to the postnominal letters GBM and the style "The Honorable"...

, GBS
Gold Bauhinia Star
The Gold Bauhinia Star is the highest rank in Order of the Bauhinia Star in Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special...

, CBE, JP
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 ' onMouseout='HidePop("21280")' href="/topics/Changping_Town">Changping Town
Changping Town
Changping town is a town within the prefecture-level city of Dongguan, in Guangdong province, southern China. The town has a total area of 108 km² and has a population of 500,000.-Transportation:...

, Dongguan
Dongguan
Dongguan is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province, People's Republic of China.An important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the south, and the Pearl River to...

, Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

) is a Hong Kong statistician, economist and civil servant. Yam was the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority or HKMA is Hong Kong's central banking institution . It is a government authority founded on 1 April 1993 via the consolidation of "Office of the Exchange Fund" and the "Office of the Commissioner of Banking"...

 (HKMA) from April 1993 to 1 October 2009.

Biography

Yam graduated from the University of Hong Kong. He joined the Government of Hong Kong
Government of Hong Kong
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, commonly the Hong Kong Government, is led by the Chief Executive as Head of the Government, who is also the head of the Hong Kong SAR...

 as a statistician in 1971, and became an economist in 1976. In 1982, he was appointed Principal Assistant Secretary for Monetary Affairs. In 1983, Yam helped formulate the peg
Fixed exchange rate
A fixed exchange rate, sometimes called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is matched to the value of another single currency or to a basket of other currencies, or to another measure of value, such as gold.A fixed exchange rate is usually used to...

 between the Hong Kong dollar
Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar is the currency of the jurisdiction. It is the eighth most traded currency in the world. In English, it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively HK$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

 and US dollar. He was appointed Deputy Secretary for Monetary Affairs in 1985 and Director of the Office of the Exchange Fund in 1991. When the Office of the Exchange Fund merged with Office of the Commissioner of Banking in 1993, he became the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Tenure as Chief Executive of HKMA

In 1995, the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers voted him 'Banker of the Year'.

Despite a study conducted by S. K. Tsang, a Professor of Economics in Hong Kong Baptist University
Hong Kong Baptist University
Hong Kong Baptist University is a publicly-funded tertiary institution with a Christian education heritage. It is the sole surviving institution of 13 major Christian universities that once operated on the Chinese mainland,...

, indicating there were weaknesses of the HKD-USA exchange rate peg system during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, Yam did not amend the narrow-based peg. Instead, he defended the Hong Kong dollar by pushing up interest rates – he pushed the overnight Interbank rates
Interbank market
The interbank market is the top-level foreign exchange market where banks exchange different currencies. The banks can either deal with one another directly, or through electronic brokering platforms. The Electronic Broking Services and Thomson Reuters Dealing 3000 Xtra are the two competitors in...

 up to 280% on 23 October 1997.

In an audacious move, the HKMA also bought US$15 billion in stocks amidst the market panic in 1998. The measure restored calm, and consequently succeeded to defend the Hong Kong fixed exchange rate parity against the US dollar. The move was initially criticised by, amongst others, Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...

, who voiced concern in September 1998 that the strategy would fail and erode the credibility of the HKMA. "It turned out that his timing was exquisite," Greenspan later said. "It was a risky action [which]... I wouldn’t recommend as a general rule for central banks."

In 2007, Yam was the highest paid central banker in the world, with an annual salary of US$1.32 million, about seven times that of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Chairman of the Federal Reserve
The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the central banking system of the United States. Known colloquially as "Chairman of the Fed," or in market circles "Fed Chairman" or "Fed Chief"...

 ($191,300)., and approximately three times that of the President of the European Central Bank (EUR 351,816 in 2008), the Governor of the Bank of England
Governor of the Bank of England
The Governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the Bank, with the incumbent grooming his or her successor...

 (GBP 290,000 in 2008) and the Governor of the Bank of Japan
Bank of Japan
is the central bank of Japan. The Bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chuo, Tokyo.-History:Like most modern Japanese institutions, the Bank of Japan was founded after the Meiji Restoration...

 ($370,000 in 2007)

In 2008, he was summoned by the a subcommittee of Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The Legislative Council is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong.-History:The Legislative Council of Hong Kong was set up in 1843 as a colonial legislature under British rule...

 in a hearing regarding issues arising from Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...

-related Minibonds and structured financial products

Convergence plan

Noticing the pricing differential between shares listed on both the local market (H-shares) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange
Shanghai Stock Exchange
The Shanghai Stock Exchange , abbreviated as 上证所/上證所 or 上交所, is a stock exchange that is based in the city of Shanghai, China. It is one of the two stock exchanges operating independently in the People's Republic of China, the other is the Shenzhen Stock Exchange...

 (A-shares), Yam pushed for mechanisms to promoter greater convergence and arbitrage. Ignoring major obstacles pointed out by local brokers, he is credited with persuading the Government to take a 5.9% stake in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited , also 香港交易所 or 港交所; abbreviated as HKEx; ) is the holding company for The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited , Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited and Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Limited...

 as leverage, and the pushing the program which allowed mainland individuals to buy Hong Kong securities directly by opening foreign-currency accounts at the Bank of China
Bank of China
Bank of China Limited is one of the big four state-owned commercial banks of the People's Republic of China. It was founded in 1912 by the Government of the Republic of China, to replace the Government Bank of Imperial China. It is the oldest bank in China...

 branch in northern Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...

. The scheme was announced by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on 20 August 2007, but stalled at the starting gate, when Beijing
Government of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...

 refused to grant permission.

Retirement

Joseph Yam, regarded as one of the territory's most powerful officials and described as "one of the best paid and the longest serving central bank chiefs in the world",
confirmed on 19 May 2009 his plan for retirement, after serving in the post for 16 years. When it was originally announced in October 2007 that he would retire on 1 October 2009, financial columnist Jake van der Kamp linked Yam's departure with his handling of the A-share and H-share plans which destabilised Hong Kong's economy. However, Sir Donald Tsang described Yam as "Comrade in arm who acted in concert with the government in 1998 to overcome the Asian financial turmoil and under the present financial tsunami, Hong Kong's banking system has remained stable." In retirement, Yam will become an honorary consultant of the People's Bank of China
People's Bank of China
The People's Bank of China is the central bank of the People's Republic of China with the power to control monetary policy and regulate financial institutions in mainland China...

.

Yam was awarded Doctor of Business Administration honoris causa by the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in Nov 2009.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK