NewHong Kong clients can pick banks with varying compliance rules

Customers of some of the city’s biggest lenders risk having their accounts suspended if they fail to fully disclose all the relevant information, under tighter money-laundering laws being introduced by the end of March next year.

The levels of current scrutiny, however, still vary widely across the sector, with HSBC so far the toughest and most aggressive to introduce standard conditions for all, while others such as Bank of China (Hong Kong) continue to adopt a case-by-case approach.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank, confirmed on Monday that all banks would need to fall in line with international requirements in terms of collecting full client information under Hong Kong’s new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institution) Ordinance.

The law was introduced in January 2015, with a three-year deadline set for March 2018, for all banks to comply with customer due diligence and record-keeping measures that match the recommendations of the international anti-money laundering body, the Financial Action Task Force.

Under the law, all banks need to regularly review “customer information to ensure it is up-to-date and relevant”, according to an HKMA spokeswoman.