Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) will abolish on 1 July this year the initial deposit requirement of $1,000 when opening an Investor Participant (IP) account in the Central Clearing and Settlement System (CCASS). The deposit has been waived since 2000 to lower the IP account entry cost to retail investors.

In addition, HKEx will extend the waiver of Short Message Service (SMS) fees for IP account holders who opt for the service to 30 June 2006. The SMS is an optional service introduced with other enhanced IP account features in late August last year. IPs who subscribe for the SMS provided by CCASS will receive text message alerts on their mobile phones when there are settlement instructions, corporate actions or initial public offering activities pending their action.  For investor protection purposes, alerts will also be generated for IPs when there are settlement-related stock or money transfers in or out of their CCASS stock accounts or money ledgers.