{"text":[[{"start":11.8,"text":"Morgan Stanley has given its entire Hong Kong investment banking team special devices to use in mainland China, in a sign of rising concerns over data compliance for staff travelling to the country."}],[{"start":23.55,"text":"Earlier this year the Wall Street bank gave an iPhone and an iPad to its 300-plus Hong Kong-based staff, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. These devices have limited functionality, offering only access to work emails and online meeting apps."}],[{"start":41.900000000000006,"text":"While some US companies have given their US-based executives so-called burner phones to travel to China, it is not common for their Hong Kong-based counterparts to do the same. Morgan Stanley’s staff in Hong Kong range from junior analysts to managing directors."}],[{"start":57.2,"text":"Other large US investment banks including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have not implemented a travelling device policy for mainland China, employees at the banks said."}],[{"start":67.4,"text":"All three banks declined to comment."}],[{"start":70.65,"text":"Morgan Stanley’s move is an example of how US banks are taking steps to entirely separate their data systems in mainland China from those used in the rest of the world, including Hong Kong, as data decoupling between the US and China shifts from a theoretical threat into an operational reality."}],[{"start":88,"text":"Both China and the US have established walls around their domestic data pools over the past years, treating the flow of data across borders as a national security vulnerability. "}],[{"start":97.9,"text":"Beijing has made sweeping amendments to its cyber security laws and mandated strict localisation of data, while Washington has also restricted the bulk transfer of sensitive personal data to “countries of concern”, explicitly targeting China."}],[{"start":113.05000000000001,"text":"As a result, companies with global operations now have a stronger need to split their tech infrastructure to meet data compliance requirements from both countries."}],[{"start":122.05000000000001,"text":"Many multinational groups operating in China have gradually shifted to running two completely segregated digital ecosystems. One is built on western cloud infrastructure such as Amazon’s cloud for the global market, with another enclave to house data from Chinese clients managed in the mainland via local providers such as AliCloud."}],[{"start":143.55,"text":"This presents challenges to staff who need to frequently navigate between the two territories and digital ecosystems."}],[{"start":150.75,"text":"Hong Kong-based investment bankers are among the most frequent travellers to mainland China, as the former British territory’s financial sector has been boosted by a flood of Chinese companies pursuing Hong Kong listings."}],[{"start":162.55,"text":"Bankers are often expected to attend “bake-offs”, in which they pitch to Chinese businesses on their advisory services in bringing companies to the Hong Kong public markets. "}],[{"start":173.05,"text":"One Morgan Stanley banker based in Hong Kong said he made five trips to multiple Chinese cities in April."}],[{"start":180.20000000000002,"text":"Initial public offerings and secondary listings in Hong Kong raised $13.3bn in the first three months of this year — the highest first-quarter total since 2021, according to London Stock Exchange Group data. Almost all came from Chinese companies."}],[{"start":204.20000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779243040_2971.mp3"}