Explainer | Quarantine exemption: here’s what you need to know about Hong Kong’s incentive for senior bankers, money managers

Senior industry executives can now seek exemption from mandatory quarantine in Hong Kong, joining airline and shipping crew, and auditors

Low infections and efforts to maintain the city’s status as regional financial hub are among key reasons for the decision

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Office workers crossing a busy street in Hong Kong’s financial district in Central. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 10:30am, 2 Jun 2021Updated: 3:30pm, 3 Jun 2021

Hong Kong’s financial-market regulators informed the city’s bankers, stock brokers, fund managers, insurers, and the directors of 500 listed companies last week of a plan to spare thousands of senior executives from compulsory quarantine.

The exemption means the industry’s top brass can start doing business upon their arrival or return to the city, subject to certain movement guidelines and protocols.

Here is what you need to know about the expanded exemption plan, which is expected to help grease the wheels of deal-making in Asia’s third-largest capital market.

An image showing some members of the Hong Kong Bankers Club in 2018. Photo: Jonathan Wong

What prompted the exemption plan?

Hong Kong has imposed some of the strictest measures in the world to control the spread of Covid-19 since March last year, including a 21-day quarantine in government-appointed hotels for travellers coming from high-risk countries.

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