Hong Kong Monetary Authority expects to uncover more cases of fraud as e-wallet losses double to HK$400,000
- HKMA deputy chief executive Howard Lee reveals increase, and says group was still gathering more information
- Authority says more than 10 cases of missing funds have been discovered so far
The amount of money stolen from customers using Hong Kong’s new faster payment system has ballooned to HK$400,000 (US$51,000) – and the Monetary Authority believes that figure could increase.
On Tuesday, Howard Lee Tak-chi, the deputy chief executive of the HKMA, said there were more than 10 suspected cases of fraud involving the system they knew about so far, and the authority was in the process of gathering more information from its various partners.
“We need to figure out the amount with various parties such as customers, banks and e-wallet operators,” Lee said. “If customers do not tell us, we wouldn’t have known.”
Lee said e-wallet operators would compensate victims if unauthorised fund transfers were found, under an agreement between the operators and banks.
Only last week, the city’s de facto central bank put the amount believed to have gone missing at HK$180,000.