Morgan Stanley to reimburse Hong Kong staff up to US$5,100 for quarantine stays

American bank is the latest to try to ease the burden on its staff of the city’s restrictive quarantine policies
Fully vaccinated travellers returning to the city face up to 21 days in hotel quarantine

Banking & finance

Chad Bray

Published: 7:26pm, 24 Nov 2021

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Morgan Stanley plans to reimburse its staff in Hong Kong up to HK$40,000 (US$5,100) for quarantine stays when returning to the city, the latest financial services firm to try to ease the burden of the city’s restrictive quarantine policies on its employees.

The American bank said it would provide a one-time reimbursement to permanent Hong Kong employees who travel overseas between December 1 and November 30, 2022, to visit immediate family, including spouses, domestic partners, children, parents and grandparents, according to an internal memo.

A Morgan Stanley spokesperson confirmed the contents of the memo on Wednesday.

Bloomberg reported the memo earlier on Wednesday.

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Hong Kong-mainland border reopening hopes grow as Chinese experts review city’s Covid-19 measures

The internal announcement came days after rival JPMorgan Chase said it would give its Hong Kong staff up to US$5,000 in compensation for quarantine stays for a single trip home in the next 12 months.

Hong Kong has faced criticism from the financial community over the city’s “zero Covid” policy as leaders hope to reopen the border with mainland China for quarantine-free travel as soon as next month.

Fully vaccinated travellers from countries deemed “high risk”, including the United States and the United Kingdom, must spend 21 days in hotel quarantine.

The cost and availability of hotel rooms have also been a point of contention.

A spot check of approved quarantine hotels this week found the cost ranging from HK$490 a night to HK$10,000 (US$1,280) a night for a non-suite room. One hotel said its earliest availability was January 26.

Last week, parcel delivery giant FedEx shut down its Hong Kong pilot base, blaming the city’s coronavirus policies.

Other business leaders have expressed concern the strict policies could undermine the city’s standing as an international financial hub, saying they are already facing difficulty attracting talent.

In October, Frederik Gollob, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said that some European companies are considering relocating parts of their operations to other cities, such as Singapore.

The city’s stringent measures to try to control the spread of Covid-19 have continued as other countries are fully reopening to outside travel despite having a much larger number of cases.

Hong Kong has had 12,412 confirmed or probable Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to local health officials. By comparison, New York City has had 1.15 million cases confirmed or probable cases since its first confirmed case on February 29, 2020.

However, Hong Kong has just reached the point of 70 per cent of the population having at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine this week – and the take-up rate among some portions of the population is much lower.