Hong Kong, a former British colony and currently an island nation to the south of China, has positioned itself distinctively in the international financial markets. With its free-market policy, and the overall craze for cryptos in Asia, we would expect Hong Kong to be one of the best breeding grounds for crypto.

However, on our phone queries to a few of the popular banks here, we found something less pleasant than expected.

A few banks explicitly indicated that they won’t deal with you if either your personal or business account is going to be crypto-related. One other major bank is clearly not adapted. And for those which didn’t explicitly say anything, they create extra hoops for you to jump if they know you are doing anything crypto.

1. Citibank. Money laundering issues are a concern in Hong Kong due to the influx of bribe money from China up across a border in the north. For this reason, Citibank won’t open business accounts for any investment-related businesses any more. Least to say if you tell them you are investing in and trading on Bitcoins. They don’t care if you have all the incorporation documents ready or not. It’s a blunt no.
2. Public Bank. This bank is avoiding crypto-related businesses. They say their bank’s policy is not to deal with anything crypto-related. It might change in the future. But for today, it’s a no.
3. HSBC. They didn’t say it to your face. But your business account opening is going to require the residing relationship officer to write a summary of your business for you, and submit it to his or her supervisor before it could be reviewed and approved (or rejected). But these relationship officers at HSBC know little to nothing about Bitcoin other than its multiple negative money-laundering connotations associated with it. Yes, even as of today in 2018. They probably isn’t your first go-to if you are looking for financial innovations.
4. OCBC Bank. Didn’t say no upfront. But on a test application, they rejected it. Reason? Same old — we’ve got “internal anti-money laundering policies” to follow.
5. Bank of China. This bank was reported to have closed Bitcoin arbitraging accounts. When asked about it, they said they were just doing it by the books. They said they had internal anti-laundering policies to follow. In translation, I think this means they are still seeing cryptos as a form of financial risk than an innovation.

Many other banks did not give you an answer up front. But they certainly give you a tighter scrutiny if your account is going to be crypto-related. 

For example, the Bank of East Asia suggested that if your account is going to be crypto-related, you need to pay an extra US$1,300 (an approximated conversion from HKD) just for the extra due diligence work. Some other banks would require double referrals just so you get an application chance. Doesn’t mean you will get approved though.

I Don’t Think the Hong Kong Banks Are Embracing It

I probed into the matter as a random nobody. It might yield different results if you are Bitmex, which rented the most expensive office in Hong Kong as of late, or if you are someone with a lot of connections with the banking officers. 

But my feel overall about Hong Kong as a random person, is that both itself and its banks are not ready for cryptos. They aren’t, as of today, embracing any crypto-related clients.