Coronavirus: HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citi among six lenders reopening all branches as Hong Kong’s vaccination rate rises, Covid-19 cases ease

HSBC, Standard Chartered, BOCHK, the city’s three currency-issuing banks, will reopen all branches on April 19 along with Hang Seng, Citi and Shanghai Commercial Bank
These six lenders have a combined 687 branches, or 62 per cent of all 1,100 branches in the city

Banking & finance

Enoch Yiu

Published: 4:37pm, 13 Apr 2022

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Six of Hong Kong’s largest banks will fully restore their branch operations next week, as the city prepares to relax some of its social-distancing rules amid improved vaccination rates and a slowing caseload.

HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK), the city’s three currency-issuing banks, said they will reopen all branches on April 19, according to statements issued on Wednesday.

Hang Seng Bank, which is a subsidiary of HSBC, as well as Citi, will also resume all branches from the same day. All five lenders will also resume all branch openings on Saturdays from April 23.

Shanghai Commercial Bank will also resume opening all its 45 branches during weekdays from April 19, but will continue to temporarily suspended Saturday banking services until further notice.

These six lenders have a combined 687 branches, or 62 per cent of all 1,100 branches in the city.

Their decision ends an 11-week period during which as many as over 60 per cent of all, and at some stage one in every four bank branches, had to be shut because of infections among employees. Their reopening comes on the same day, next Tuesday, as students resuming classes. Restaurants are, however, expected to be able to resume dinner services from April 21.

“We had to adjust our branch operations to cope with the rapid spread of the fifth wave, so that we could continue to provide essential banking services to the public,” Standard Chartered said in a statement. It also reminded customers to check its website for individual branches that may need to be temporarily shut for deep cleaning.

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Standard Chartered will open all of its 70 branches from Tuesday, while HSBC will resume normal hours for most of its 100 or so retail branches and all of its business centres.

HSBC’s banking hours for its retail branches will revert to 9am until 4.30pm or 5pm on weekdays, and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. Business centres will be open between 9am and 5.30pm from Monday to Friday. Its branches in the international airport areas remain temporarily closed.

“To safeguard the health and safety of employees and customers, HSBC will continue to implement temperature screening and require visitors to put on a surgical mask at all its premises. Tickets will be distributed at branches to control traffic if needed,” HSBC said in a statement on Wednesday.

BOCHK, which closed about a third of its branches, will also resume opening all of its about 180 outlets from Tuesday, except those at the airport.

Hong Kong’s 20 major lenders temporarily shut about 200 branches starting February 7. This number leapt to more than 600 in early March because of safety concerns and Covid-19 infections among staff. About 12 lenders also suspended Saturday services in late February.

The number of closed branches steadily decreased to about 360 closures as of the end of March, as new infections declined. Daily cases are now down to about 1,400 from a peak of more than 50,000 early last month.

Other lenders such as Bank of East Asia, OCBC Wing Hang and CMB Wing Lung, which still have scores of branches temporarily closed due to the pandemic, have not yet announced when they will reopen all branches.

China Construction Bank (Asia) on Wednesday said three of its 36 branches would remain closed until further notice, while Saturday banking services – suspended since March 5 – will continue to be suspended until further notice.