In the wake of the global financial crisis, there is a consensus that the world needs good regulators to ensure that the financial sector serves society in a way that it should and does not wreak havoc. But it is not an easy task. Regulators need to be smart enough to to understand the market's complexities and not be captured by its easy nostrums, devoted enough to public service that they accept earning a pittance compared with what someone of their talents could make in the private sector, strong enough to resist its enticements, and politically astute enough to manage a politics charged with money. Hong Kong has been lucky to have such a regulator in the form of Andrew Sheng.
