Five banks keep 13 branches shut and hundreds of ATMs offline after vandals attacked China-linked companies in Hong Kong

BOCHK still closed five branches on Tuesday after it has to close all 200 branches except one on Saturday, while ICBC (Asia) need to close four. Both have mainland state-owned back banks as parent

Banks decline to confirm if any cash from ATMs was lost, but say customers’ assets at the banks’ safe deposit boxes are safe

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Anti-government protesters vandalised and damaged several locations including a Bank of China branch in Sha Tin on 5 May 2019 after the government issued an anti-mask law. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 6:19pm, 8 Oct 2019Updated: 7:31pm, 8 Oct 2019

Five banks, including two of mainland China’s largest state-owned lenders, shut some of their branches and automated teller machines in Hong Kong on Tuesday after a long weekend of violence and vandalism sparked by protest rallies around the city.

The partial shutdown affected 13 branches and 330 ATMs across several districts in the city, about one in 10 automated tellers in one of the world’s most over-banked urban centres, according to South China Morning Post’s tabulation of data and press releases by the banks.

“Bank customers are advised to use online banking or ATM services as far as possible, and check bank branches service status before visiting,” the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said in a statement over the weekend when it disclosed that 330 ATMs had been vandalised. “Recent spate of vandalism and arson attacks have seriously affected the use of banking services by the public. Any form of vandalism and violence should be condemned.”

The stoppage underscores how four months of unprecedented civic unrest continued to wreak havoc on Asia’s financial hub, as tourists stayed away, retail sales dwindled and property prices declined, putting the city’s economy on track to a technical recession in the fiscal third quarter that started on October 1. A long list of companies, especially those owned by mainland China investors, were the targets of rioters’ retribution this weekend, as the city’s public unrest morphed from an opposition to a controversial extradition bill into a general attack on China.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), the local unit of China’s oldest lender and one of the city’s three currency issuers, had been the hardest hit, as it bore the brunt of the protesters’ wrath against any company deemed to be associated with the mainland.

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