Hong Kong’s market regulator has stepped up warnings to investment banks over filing sloppy applications for share sales as listings boom.

In a circular issued on Friday, the Securities and Futures Commission said it’s concerned that a growing number of teams at the most active sponsors are unfamiliar with regulatory requirements and lack experience and resources to handle applications.

It also found that some principal bankers have insufficient capacity to supervise, and show an over-reliance on lawyers and auditors.

The SFC is now requiring all sponsoring banks to submit names and numbers of principal bankers and how many active listings they are working on within two weeks. Anyone supervising or participating in more than six deals will be regarded as “lacking adequate or appropriate resources,” according to the circular.

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It said that application documents shouldn’t exceed 300 pages in total, among other fresh requirements.

“The gate-keeping role of sponsors in the listing process is critical to maintaining the quality of Hong Kong’s capital market and sustaining investor confidence in new listings that will hold up through all market cycles,” SFC Chief Executive Officer Julia Leung said in a statement. “That role may have been eroded in their eager pursuit of deal volume.”

It’s at least the second warning from the authority in less than two months over the quality of IPO applications as the city last year experienced the highest fund-raising volume in four years and the busiest January on record.

The 13 sponsors who were warned last month and those with principals taking care of more than six IPOs “should expect the SFC to conduct on-site thematic inspections of their sponsor work and resources in the near future,” the SFC said.  

Bonnie Chan, Hong Kong’s stock exchange chief executive officer, said earlier this month that quality was “non-negotiable” and warned of disciplinary action where appropriate.

Apart from the bankers, the SFC is requiring the sponsors to report the full list of individuals working on IPO applications who haven’t recently passed certain securities qualification exams.

As of Dec 31, 2025, vetting of 16 listing applications had been suspended.