A prominent corporate governance activist in Hong Kong has criticised a government plan that would enable companies to conceal the identity cards of directors on the local companies’ registry website.

Hong Kong is proposing changes to corporate law that would block public access to the residential addresses of directors and their full government-issued identity card numbers, which would make it harder for investors to do due diligence on companies.

Caterpillar’s announcement last week that it had uncovered accounting misconduct at a Hong Kong-listed Chinese mining equipment group, which had it acquired last year, has cast a spotlight on the controversy.