HSBC , the biggest lender in Hong Kong, has donated HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) to help low-income households hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak, the biggest so far by the city’s financial sector. The lender has joined a slew of companies, including Bright Smart Securities , Futu Securities, Ant Group and FTLife, which over the past week have offered support ranging from monetary donations, testing kits and other assistance to the city facing record infections nearly every day amid the fifth wave of the coronavirus outbreak. The Hongkong Bank Foundation, the bank’s charitable arm, has teamed up with the Hong Kong Red Cross to help households who need to undergo compulsory home quarantine because of infections among family members or lockdowns of residential buildings for tests. Under the programme, it will provide care packages including Covid-19 test kits, food, household items and basic medicines for these families. It will also have a hotline to offer psychological support and health related information for those having to quarantine. “We want to step up our efforts to help senior citizens and other vulnerable communities to ensure the continuity of their regular needs like medical treatments and household supplies during this critical period of the Covid situation in Hong Kong,” said Peter Wong Tung-shun, non-executive chairman of HSBC Asia-Pacific and chairman of The Hongkong Bank Foundation. Noel Quinn, group chief executive of HSBC, said the donation will “support those most vulnerable during this time of great need”, adding that it showed the bank’s commitment to Hong Kong. Including Monday’s donation, HSBC has made more than HK$170 million of Covid-19 related charitable donations to the Hong Kong community. Globally, the bank in March last year announced a US$25 million Covid-19 donation fund to support medical, food security and other help for the vulnerable people. Ant Group on Monday said its affiliate AlipayHK will waive or deduct transaction fees for local SMEs for six months, based on their transaction volume, to alleviate their burden in the face of the fifth wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong. Ant, a fintech affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post , on February 18 pledged HK$10 million to support frontline medical practitioners by providing them with protective materials and living supplies. Hang Seng Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC, on Monday said it will donate HK$10 million to procure 150,000 rapid antigen test kits, 750,000 surgical masks and other necessities that will be distributed to some 25,000 senior citizens and disadvantaged families. Hong Kong banks are feeling the pain from branch closures amid Covid spike “Hong Kong is our home and we want to contribute to the fight against the current Covid-19 situation,” said Diana Cesar, chief executive of Hang Seng Bank. Hong Kong’s tally of Covid-19 cases stood at 52,830 as of Sunday. Officials have stopped providing numbers for preliminary-positive cases, which have been in the thousands every day, saying the backlog of test samples to be confirmed meant they could no longer reflect the real daily trend. FTLife is providing three months of free insurance cover for up to 500 anti-epidemic taxi drivers . It includes a one-off HK$5,000 payment in case a driver is infected with Covid-19, HK$500 per day for hospital stays of up to 14 days, and HK$100,000 for their families in case of death. FTLife will also cover drivers of designated light and medium buses involved in transporting people to isolation facilities. So far 300 taxi drivers and vehicles have been mobilised to provide transport services for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms from their homes to designated clinics and back. Hotels answer Carrie Lam’s call, agree to help with more isolation rooms Other sizeable donations include HK$10 million from Bright Smart Securities’ founding chairman Yip Mow-lum via his charity to the Hospital Authority and HK$10 million from Futu Securities for Covid-19 related projects in Hong Kong. “HSBC and many other financial firms have rushed to make donations as their businesses will be hurt if the outbreak gets out of control,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, chairman of Institute of Securities Dealers of Hong Kong, the industry guild for brokers. “The donations will also go a long way to improve their image in the community.”