Hong Kong Monetary Authority implements measures to improve ethnic minority access to basic financial services
Move in response to racial discrimination and cumbersome complaints process, causing people to not come forward to address their grievances
Concerns are growing that a “banking underclass” is emerging in Hong Kong due to the combined effects of racial discrimination and a system of redress so cumbersome that people have given up complaining.
In a move to address the problem – which has become increasingly difficult to quantify due to a falling number of formal complaints – the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has introduced a series of measures aimed at improving ethnic minority access to basic financial services which the rest of the population take for granted.
Both the authority – a de facto central bank for the city – and a respected ethnic minority advocacy group have urged people from the ethnic minority community, which numbers more than 350,000, not to lose faith in the complaints system.
Last year, advocacy group Hong Kong Unison received just seven complaints about possible discrimination against ethnic minority people who tried to open a bank account or access financial services while Equal Opportunities Commission said it received only one such complaint under the Race Discrimination Ordinance. The monetary authority said their 2016 figure was zero.