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Covid-19: 12 banks in Hong Kong including HSBC, Standard Chartered and BOCHK to halt weekend services

  • Standard Chartered, CMB Wing Lung and China Citic will close all outlets every Saturday from February 26 until further notice
  • Other banks including HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and BOCHK to follow suit from March 5

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HSBC had as of Friday closed 51 branches, or half of its network. It will close all outlets every Saturday starting March 5. Photo: Felix Wong
Enoch Yiu
Twelve Hong Kong banks, including note-issuing lenders HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK), will suspend all banking services on Saturdays starting this week and the next until further notice.
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Standard Chartered, CMB Wing Lung, China Citic, and OCBC Wing Hang Bank will close all outlets every Saturday from February 26 until further notice. HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, BOCHK, Bank of East Asia, China Construction Bank (Asia), Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), Citibank and Dah Sing Bank will follow suit from March 5.

“Since the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic started in January, the number of infections in the banking sector has been growing,” said a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the de facto central bank. “The HKMA has not specified a percentage of bank branches that banks have to open or close. This is a decision to be made by individual banks having regard to their own circumstances,” she said.

Even before the suspension of weekend services, 20 major banks had already started temporarily closing branches. As of Friday, this number stood at 550, or half of all 1,100 bank branches in the city. The lenders closed about 200 branches starting February 7, but the number has jumped because of safety concerns or Covid-19 infections among staff members. The closure of branches is in its third week now.

Hong Kong's bank branch closures as of February 25

Bank Number of Branch Closures  Full Suspension of Branch Services on Saturday 
HSBC 51 Yes **
Hang Seng Bank 46 Yes **
BOCHK 124 Yes **
Standard Chartered 45 Yes *
Bank of East Asia  28 Yes**
ICBC Asia 34 No
CCB Asia  19 Yes **
OCBC Wing Hang   5 Yes *
CMB Wing Lung 19 Yes *
Shanghai Commercial Bank 30 No
China Citic Bank 16 Yes*
Bank of Communications HK 19 Yes**
Chiyu Bank 12 No
Citibank  5 Yes**
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* All branches suspend services on every Saturday from February 26 until further notice

** All branches suspend services on every Saturday from March 5 until further notice 

Sources Hong Kong Association of Banks and individual banks 

Other banks, such as ICBC Asia, Chong Hing Bank, DBS, Chiyu Bank, Shanghai Commercial Bank, Nanyang Commercial Bank and Fubon Bank, will continue to offer banking services on Saturdays.

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