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Coronavirus Hong Kong
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HSBC, Standard Chartered among 11 banks to curtail opening hours, close 59 branches as Hong Kong fights third wave of coronavirus

  • About five per cent of the city’s total branch network will be partially or completely closed amid efforts to contain the third wave of infections
  • The restrictions come as the latest outbreak pushed the number of infections in Hong Kong towards the 2,000 mark

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The 11 lenders including HSBC and Standard Chartered will partially or completely shut down operations at some 50 branches – about 5 per cent of the city’s total. Photo: Bloomberg
Enoch Yiu
HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia are among 11 banks changing their operating hours and closing some of their branches as a third wave of Covid-19 forces Hong Kong to take containment measures.

Between them the 11 lenders will partially or completely shut down operations at some 58 branches – about five per cent of the city’s total – from Monday or Tuesday. The restrictions come as the latest outbreak pushed the number of infections in Hong Kong towards the 2,000 mark, forcing the government to order civil servants to work from home and ban dine-in services at restaurants after 6pm.

HSBC, the biggest lender in the city, took the lead, announcing late on Sunday night that all branches will close an hour earlier, at 4pm, from Mondays to Fridays.

02:12

Hong Kong bans dine-in service from 6pm to 5am to contain its third wave of Covid-19 infections

Hong Kong bans dine-in service from 6pm to 5am to contain its third wave of Covid-19 infections

HSBC, one of three note-issuing banks in the city, will suspend operations entirely at nine of its outlets – three mobile branches, retail branches at Hong Kong International Airport, To Kwa Wan, and Sha Tin, and business services centres in Kwun Tong, Sheung Shui and Sha Tin.

“This is a precautionary measure for contingency purposes of safeguarding the health and safety of our employees and customers in light of the rapidly evolving Coronavirus situation in Hong Kong while balancing the need to ensure normal banking services to the community,” HSBC said in a statement.

Other banks followed suit on Monday, with Bank of East Asia, China Construction Bank (Asia) and CMB Wing Lung Bank all indicating their entire branch networks will close at 4pm. DBS said its branches will close at 4.30pm, and BEA said its ATM cheque deposit cut-off time would change to 4pm.

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