HKMA Welcomes a Hong Kong Bank Launching Remote Onboarding Service for Opening Mainland Bank Accounts

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20 Mar 2019

HKMA Welcomes a Hong Kong Bank Launching Remote Onboarding Service for Opening Mainland Bank Accounts

A Hong Kong bank announced today (20 March) the launch of a pilot scheme for Hong Kong permanent residents to open Mainland personal bank accounts in the Greater Bay Area remotely. They may complete the Mainland account opening procedure by attestation in one of the Hong Kong branches of the bank under the same banking group. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) welcomes this development.

Mr Norman Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA, said, "to support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, the HKMA has been proactively studying different financial facilitation measures with the Mainland authorities. As more and more Hong Kong people work and reside in the Mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area, we attach great importance to their convenient access to financial and banking services in the region. To tackle the difficulties in making mobile payment in the Mainland, we have discussed with the Mainland authorities to provide the necessary policy headroom. Since last year, individual Hong Kong e-wallet operators have launched cross-boundary payment services on a pilot basis, and their coverage has been expanding gradually. We believe that the new service launched today will further facilitate Hong Kong residents to open Mainland bank accounts and access Mainland banking services. As the next step, we will explore with the Mainland authorities room for further simplifying the account opening process and documentation. In future, we will continue to work with the Mainland authorities to proactively study and implement other financial measures in support of the Greater Bay Area development."

 

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
20 March 2019

 

 
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Last revision date : 20 March 2019