Why Are There No Debit Cards in Hong Kong?

It’s not that there aren’t debit cards in Hong Kong. They’re just not the debit cards you might expect.

Overseas, debit cards are commonplace—linked by Visa or Mastercard to your checking account, and deducting the cash directly. You can use them in shops, online and internationally. Good luck doing all that with just your HSBC ATM card. In fact, few banks in the city offer the simple, universal debit systems ubiquitous in the west. Why?

Read more: What's the History of Hong Kong's Opium Monopoly?

Read more: Why Are There So Many Filipino Cover Bands in Hong Kong?

There’s no single explanation, but a set of factors unique to the city that have converged to produce this somewhat less convenient way of life.

There is a debit system in Hong Kong, of course: EPS, founded in 1984 by a consortium of 21 Hong Kong banks to provide a convenient, cash-free way to pay in shops and supermarkets. Couple that with easily available cashback and the fact that we can pay our bills and even our taxes via EPS in a 7-Eleven, and our debit spending is in fact pretty high: Last year we made 126 million transactions on debit cards in Hong Kong, spending $273 billion on retail and bill payments.

Problem is, EPS is exclusive to Hong Kong, so you can’t use it overseas—and it’s not like you can use it universally in Hong Kong either. Try paying for a meal at Otto e Mezzo by EPS and you’ll be washing dishes in the kitchen until the end of time.

Meanwhile in China, the China Union Pay system rules supreme and is much more widely accepted than Visa or Mastercard. As banks in Hong Kong increasingly head in the direction of that mainland cash, there’s less reason for them to want to adopt more western systems.