THE Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has a policy that discriminates between sterling cash issued by the Bank of England and those issued by any of the Scottish issuing banks.
The other day I went into a Hongkong Bank branch in Tsuen Wan and asked the teller what was the current Hong Kong dollar to pounds sterling. She promptly told me the current exchange rate.
I proceeded to hand over my cash, only to be told by her she would have to phone her head office before she accepted my Scottish bank-issued pound notes.
She came back saying she had approval to accept the Scottish bank-issued notes that I had just given to her.
However, when she gave me the cash exchange form, I noticed that the rate of exchange printed on the form was different to the one she had previously told me.
On asking why there was a difference, albeit only a few cents, she told me the bank had two different rates for Bank of England pound notes and Scottish bank pound notes, and the rate went lower the more Scottish notes you tried to exchange! The branch manager who I spoke to, confirmed they gave different rates of exchange for Bank of England and Scottish banks' notes, but pointed out this was due to the fact that Hongkong Bank found it difficult to re-issue Scottish pound notes here in Hong Kong.