Hong Kong banks vow to ease loans in HKMA’s task force to help borrowers, small businesses

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HSBC, Standard Chartered, BOCHK, Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank and ICBC Asia promise to approve mortgage loans within two weeks

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People crossing the street in Hong Kong’s Central district on 7 October 2021. Photo: Sam Tsang.

Enoch Yiu

Published: 3:24pm, 23 Aug 2024Updated: 6:46pm, 23 Aug 2024

Nearly a dozen of Hong Kong’s banks have pledged to provide fair and quicker access to loans, as they heed the call by the city’s de facto central bank to cut red tape and provide funding help to small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and mortgage borrowers.

Six of the biggest banks, with a combined 80-per cent share of the city’s mortgages, signed on to a pledge to approve all eligible applications within two weeks, said Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The banks are HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank and ICBC Asia.

The mortgage lenders are among the 11 members of the HKMA’s Task Force on SME Lending, which Yuen chairs along with Luanne Lim, the chairwoman of the Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB).

“HKMA will not instruct banks on how to make the loan [assessments], but make sure that banks adopt a fair and tolerant manner to help clients,” Yuen said in a media briefing on Friday. “The task force is a channel for SMEs to reflect their [funding] difficulties, and for the HKMA and lenders to work with them in finding a solution.”

(from Left to Right) Bank of China (Hong Kong) CEO Sun Yu; Hong Kong Monetary Authority CEO Eddie Yue Wai-man; Hong Kong Association of Banks chairwoman and HSBC Hong Kong CEO Luanne Lim; and Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong CEO Mary Huen Wai-yi, at the HKMA’s office on August 23, 2024. Photo: Enoch Yiu.

The two-week approvals pledge would be a major improvement from the current process that takes between two and three months, said Eric Tso Tak-ming, the chief vice-president of mortgage broker mReferral.