HSBC's online banking investment services in Hong Kong broke down for an hour and 22 minutes yesterday, leaving some retail investors frustrated.
Between 1.50pm and 3.12pm, HSBC's Internet Banking Investment Services in Hong Kong were intermittently unavailable, said an HSBC spokesman. 'Services resumed normally thereafter. We're still investigating the root cause of the problem. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.' The services affected allow trading in shares, unit trusts and bonds.
'It has affected my friends, who are individual investors,' said a Hong Kong financial executive.
'My friends told me they definitely found it inconvenient. They might have failed to catch the best market timing to trade. They were definitely upset, if they could not sell at a higher price or buy at a lower price [when the system was down].'
'This mainly affects retail investors,' said Kenny Tang Sing-hing, executive director of Redford Asset Management. 'It is substantial damage for investors. If they wanted to buy and sell, and they couldn't do it, they could make a loss.'
Conducting stock transactions by phoning a broker is far less convenient than online trading, as phone lines are often busy and it is not easy for many clients to reach a broker at the same time, said Tang.
