Hong Kong’s banking regulator has said it had, in April, asked lenders operating in the region to try and meet the business needs of licensed crypto exchanges, responding to a report saying banks were under pressure to take such exchanges on as clients.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) comments were in response to a Financial Times report, which said lenders including HSBC and Standard Chartered were facing pressure from Hong Kong’s central bank to take on crypto exchanges as clients.
In its bid to emerge as a global crypto hub, Hong Kong has been pulling out all stops, from courting mainland China crypto firms to floating plans of testing a digital dollar in its mortgage market. The UK-based lenders, and the Bank of China were questioned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May on why crypto exchanges were not being accepted as clients, the report added.
The HKMA, in a recent letter to lenders said diligence on potential customers should not “create undue burden”, especially “for those setting up an office in Hong Kong.”