James Fok

Chief Commercial Officer, CMU OmniClear Limited

Mr James Fok is the Chief Commercial Officer of CMU OmniClear Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Exchange Fund. Since January 2025, CMU OmniClear has been carrying out the operations and business development activities of the Central Moneymarkets Unit on behalf of the HKMA.

Previously, James served for a decade as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (SEHK: 388), where he played a major role in a number of landmark Chinese capital market internationalisation initiatives, including the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme (2014), Bond Connect (2017) and the Hong Kong market's Listing Reforms (2018). In his earlier career, he worked as an investment banker in both Europe and Asia, specialising in the financial services sector.

James has written and spoken extensively about market structure issues and the intersection between geopolitics and international finance. He is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE: ASC), an Executive Board Member of the International Securities Services Association, and a Distinguished Nonresident Fellow of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World. He has also previously served on the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s Fintech Advisory Group (2023-24), as an International Member of Ireland for Finance's Industry Advisory Committee (2021-23), and on the Financial Services Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council (2014-21).