Bank account opening in Hong Kong

SOLUTIONS SolutionsConsulting

As the world's third largest financial center, Hong Kong has a perfect financial system, standardized services and a globally open market. The advantages of free access to funds and unrestricted international capital flows have attracted many enterprises to open accounts in Hong Kong banks. Since the closure of Hong Kong due to the new crown epidemic, it has become more difficult to open a Hong Kong bank account, and the local bank account in Hong Kong that has been successfully applied for has also been greatly affected. So what are the benefits of opening a Hong Kong bank account? Is it difficult to open a Bank account in Hong Kong, and what is the difficulty? Detailed answers below.

Ⅰ. The benefits of opening a Hong Kong bank account

1. Free movement of funds, no exchange control, free currency conversion.

2. The account is easy to operate, and you can trade online anytime, anywhere.

3. Interest tax is exempted, and the actual income on the deposit is higher.

4. Facilitate the settlement of payments for international trade.

Ⅱ.The specific reasons for the difficulty of opening an account with a Bank in Hong Kong

1. Global anti-money laundering efforts have increased, and banks have been fined sky-high.

2. Anti-money laundering work is severe, and banks have raised the threshold for opening accounts

In July 2021, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department recently cracked the virtual currency money laundering case for the first time, involving a total of HK$1.2 billion, dismantling a suspected money laundering group. The case involved three locally incorporated companies and the arrest of four men involved, including key members of the criminal syndicate, for a total of HK$20 million.

香港海关破黑钱党拘四人涉款12亿 | 大公中原网 (dgbzy.com)

On December 2, 2021, the Hong Kong Police smashed more than 60 local accounts of the money laundering group, involving more than HK $300million

香港警方捣破洗黑钱集团涉逾3亿港元款项-中新网(chinanews.com.cn)

3. There are many empty accounts, and the Hong Kong government controls the number of accounts opened in combination with market saturation to partially control the number of accounts opened

Since the operation will be fined, the risk cost of the bank opening an account for the customer will be greatly increased. So the bank launched a series of actions to clean up empty accounts that were often idle. Such an account does not bring income to the bank, but the bank needs a cost to maintain the account.

4. Conditions do not meet industry restrictions, business and capital transactions are sensitive to countries and regions, capital qualifications do not meet the standards, etc

5. Under COVID-19 epidemic situation, many customers cannot open an account in Hong Kong, bank managers cannot communicate directly with customers face-to-face, fully understand the customer's situation, and banks can only raise the threshold for opening an account and reduce risks. And in the past two years, the epidemic has always been repeated, once the bank staff is found to be diagnosed, the bank will implement isolation and restrict the personnel to work, and the process and time of account opening will be extended.

In addition to handling Hong Kong bank account opening forclients, Solutions also provides Hong Kong company registration and other related enterprise consultingservices. How should the conditions for opening a Hong Kong bank account be maintained, the required documents, and after successful account opening? For details, please consult Solutions.