Coronavirus puts Hong Kong’s online financial channels to test as banking, insurance transactions surge
- Hong Kong’s lenders have closed 20 to 30 per cent of their 1,300 branches to contain the viral outbreak
- More than half of the city’s population has signed up for faster electronic payment system since inception in September 2018
Banks, insurers and an online lending platform in Hong Kong are seeing a surge in transactions as the city’s biggest health scare in almost two decades puts the Asian financial hub’s online financial channels on trial.
Bank of China (Hong Kong) has seen “a significant increase” in customers accessing its mobile applications, while AIA Group is fielding more policy inquiries and claims submissions. Bank of East Asia said it recorded a double-digit increase in faster-payment transactions.
The Covid-19 epidemic, the worst since the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003, is stretching the pain threshold for local businesses barely weeks after a bruising social unrest in 2019. Hong Kong’s economy faces a deeper recession after contracting last year for the first time since the global financial crisis, the government has warned.
“The epidemic is putting the system in Hong Kong to a test,” said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, securities strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai. “People are shifting to digital channels instead of lining up at physical branches, and the financial institutions have so far handled the situation really well.”
Hong Kong’s lenders have closed about 20 to 30 per cent of their 1,300 citywide branches to contain the viral outbreak and sent workers to work from home to curb transmission risks, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on January 31. Its faster electronic-payment system installed in September 2018 is showing healthy gains.