HSBC, Standard Chartered, BOCHK leave interest rates alone as borrowers eye relief later this year
- HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and BOCHK are keeping their prime lending rates unchanged at 5.875 per cent, paying 0.875 per cent per annum for deposits
- Standard Chartered Bank also said it would keep its prime lending unchanged at 6.125 per cent
Hong Kong’s three note-issuing banks – HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) – announced on Thursday that they will keep their lending and deposit rates unchanged after the city’s monetary authority followed suit with the US Federal Reserve in keeping interest rates at their current level.
The status quo stance means businesses and mortgage borrowers will have to wait until at least later this year for interest-rate relief as the economy struggles to crawl out of a stubborn slump.
BOCHK, alongside HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, kept their prime lending rates unchanged at 5.875 per cent, paying 0.875 per cent per annum for saving deposits over HK$5,000 and nothing to those below the threshold, the banks said in separate statements on Thursday.
Standard Chartered Bank also said it would keep its prime lending rate unchanged at 6.125 per cent, paying 0.875 per cent per annum for all saving deposits over HK$1.
The HKMA has followed the Fed’s rate decision in lockstep since 1983 by design under its linked exchange rate system to preserve the local currency peg to the US dollar.
