Operator to provide auditor's report on add-value EPS service
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has appointed an independent business management expert to advise Octopus Cards Limited following reports of wrongful deductions from the bank accounts of Octopus smartcard holders.
The authority said in a news release yesterday that it had appointed Chinese University business administration professor Andrew Chan Chi-fai under the Banking Ordinance to the advisory role. It had also required Octopus to provide an independent auditor's report on its operation of add-value services.
Last Friday, Octopus reported that there were 571 failed add-value EPS transactions involving its Octopus cards at MTR and KCRC rail stations, involving HK$142,400. It later reported that were more incidents, including one in which money was wrongfully deducted from a cardholder's bank account using an add-value machine at a shopping mall in Mong Kok.
According to the Monetary Authority, Octopus thought that the problems were associated with an upgrade in December of its operating system. But yesterday it said that there had been other incidents before the 571 cases reported by Prudence Chan Bik-wah, chief executive of Octopus Holdings. On Friday, Ms Chan apologised to cardholders and said they would be refunded within a week.
Octopus Holdings is owned by Hong Kong's major bus and rail companies and, through Octopus Cards, operates a form of electronic currency that it describes as 'the world's leading contactless smartcard payment system'.
