recently, according to industry insiders, a batch of accounts in hong kong was suspected of money laundering, who received a large number of funds in a short period of time and quickly turned away in an organized way, which was highly concerned by the bank’s executives and has thoroughly investigated the relevant accounts.
the relevant account opening managers and supervisors are also accepting internal bank investigations.
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therefore, the bank has tightened the application for new account opening. some branches have even suspended the application for new account opening. the new account opening application that is under review is also suspended until the bank’s announcement. in addition, due to serious matters, the bank will check the accounts opened before to avoid similar incidents.
affected by this incident, major hong kong banks have recently raised the threshold for opening accounts; the audit is stricter; the difficulty of opening an account is greatly improved. since the bank has suspected that the head of the money laundering account is a chinese citizen. the chinese citizens in the recent period have been blacklisted by the bank and refused any new account opening applications.
in fact, this is not the first case. the problem of opening an account has always existed.
in the latest 2 years, mainland funds were increasingly coming to the abroad and collecting foreign exchanges, and inlanders were constantly flooding into hong kong to open accounts.
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at the same time, however, hong kong banks have limited staff and account opening accounts are near saturation. on the customer side, due to the closure of customer accounts by hsbc, hang seng, and domestic banks, the demand for account opening and the workload of hong kong banks are gradually increasing.
in the case of hong kong banks, the tightening of the opening threshold and the shortage of staff caused by the supervision have made the opening of the account slower and more difficult.
therefore, what are the real reasons for the difficulties of opening a hong kong bank account?
first, the global economic situation is complex and volatile. the anti-money laundering situation at home and abroad is facing new challenges.
the hong kong monetary authority is even more compulsory to require banks to cooperate with account supervision to avoid tax evasion, capital flight, and money laundering. if the relevant regulatory responsibilities are not implemented, they will be severely fined by the cbrc.
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in december 2012, hsbc suspected money laundering and paid us$1.92 billion in settlement funds to us federal and local authorities.
second, since january 1st,2017, china and hong kong officially began to implement the new account opening procedures under the crs framework. in 2018, the first information exchange was conducted with other countries and regions, and international tax cooperation was further strengthened.
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third, under the dual background of the sino-us trade war and the rise of fed’s interest rate, hong kong, as the offshore trading center of the rmb, has become the preferred place for capital outflows.
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although the threshold of opening account has been improved, it is not impossible to open an account. as long as you pay attention to the following points, you can open an account smoothly and improve the service life of your account:
new clients
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find a licensed secretarial company as a secretarial group of a hong kong company;
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find reliable agents, prepare real and complete account opening documents according to the requirements of different banks, and review in advance to ensure the information brought on the day of account opening that meets the bank requirements;
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look good on the day of account opening, do not use mobile phones during the interview;
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be familiar with the company’s business conditions and models, and understand the detailed information of suppliers and customers;
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truthfully reply to the question asked by the account manager;
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be confident when opening an account, don’t avoid the issue;
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if you have a financial certificate such as a real estate license, you can also bring it together.
clients with an existing account
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retain relevant transaction vouchers, such as contracts, bills of lading, invoices, customs declarations, etc. for each transaction;
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avoid trading with sensitive countries and sanctioned countries;
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the transaction shouldn’t be done (in/out of the same account）on the same day;
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the account maintains the minimum balance prescribed by the bank;
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pay attention to bank notices and cooperate with bank investigations;
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accounts that have not been used for a long time, and should be used at least once a month for online banking.
although the bank account opening situation in hong kong is still grim, as long as you comply with the bank account opening guidelines, cooperate with the bank to do due diligence work, and provide sufficient and effective business documents to prove that it is a real business, it can still be successfully approved and successfully open an account.
