The Association was set up in September 1981. It was in response to a need which the then Financial Secretary Sir Philip Haddon-Cave expressed at his 1980 Budget Speech (para, 319) to talk to the then around 300 merchant banks and deposit-taking companies as a whole. At the time our members were under a separate Deposit-taking Companies Ordinance and government felt the need to revamp the banking structure. This was in turn due more to our quiet success rather than the media high lighted cases of failure. As a group these institutions at one time absorbed over 37% of total deposits from the public. The history of the Association has since been one of representing all of the authorized institutions other than the fully licensed banks and one of consulting with the authority - the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and its precursor the Office of the Commissioner of Banking - on the regulatory regime for authorized institutions (Als).

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