Vendor Application Procedures

Notes:

1.   An application is deemed to have been formally lodged with HKEx when the applicant formally submitted a Form A.  A letter of acknowledgement ("Letter A") of the submission of Form A will be issued.  Applicant has to provide all information required under Form A normally within a period of 4 months after the formal submission of Form A.  HKEx may grant an extension of no longer than 2 months on the merit of individual cases at the request of the applicants.  Otherwise, the application will be lapsed.  No new application from such applicant will be considered within 6 months after the date of the lapse.  

2.   After the Form A is considered duly completed and at the preliminary assessment by HKEx that the applicant is fit for licence, HKEx will request the applicant to pay in advance the due deposit for the vendor licence.  Upon receipt of the deposit, HKEx will issue a further letter ("Letter B") to the applicant to confirm with it that the Form A be duly completed and the deposit received, and its case will be taken to the senior management for consideration for approval.  The result of the application will normally be available four weeks from the Letter B.  If the applicant decided to withdraw its application after the issuance of Letter B, an application processing fee of $50,000 will be deducted from its deposit and the balance will be refunded to the applicant.

3.   Approval Letter will be issued to successful applicant choosing indirect connection to obtain HKEx market data.  If the applicant chooses to receive the data directly from HKEx systems, a Provisional Approval Letter will instead be issued and the approval will be conditional upon the applicant's successful completion of the system Certification Test.

4.   For direct connection vendor applicant, the Certification Test must be completed normally within a period of 4 months from the issuance of the Provisional Approval Letter.   Extension of the certification period may be considered and granted by HKEx on a case by case basis.  Approval Letter will be issued to the applicant upon the completion of its Certification Test.