Pierre Latrobe at Mazars discusses recent HKMA initiatives taken in response to Covid-19 and their implications for Hong Kong banks, highlighting credit risk as a growing threat.
May 13, 2020$10bn will be available to banks under the USD liquidity facility. The stress tests are being postponed to 2021 to free up banks' operational capacity.
April 23, 2020The move will free up a total 400 billion yuan at small and medium-sized lenders, allowing them to provide additional financing to SMEs.
April 5, 2020New measures include an interest rate cut, a bond-buying programme, a term lending facility for banks, and relaxed expectations on bank capital ratios.
March 19, 2020At the second meeting of the Banking Sector SME Lending Coordination Mechanism, established in October, banks agreed to a number of additional measures to aid SME borrowers.
January 21, 2020Two operators of an SME conspired to defraud DBS Bank, HSBC, ICBC, Dah Sing Bank, Wing Hang Bank, the Trade and Industry Department, and the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation.
October 28, 2019Pierre Latrobe at Mazars discusses the measures the HKMA has taken so far to strengthen its macroprudential supervisory toolkit and address potential risks to the wider financial system.
October 22, 2019The first CCyB cut since 2015, the move is expected to free up between HKD 200-300 billion in the financial system and make it easier for banks to lend to SMEs.
October 15, 2019ICBC was reportedly the first bank to lower its lending rate on small business loans, offering a rate of 4.5% in Q4 2018, compared to the PBOC's one-year benchmark lending rate of 4.35%.
May 20, 2019Only 100 P2P lending platforms are expected to qualify for new licences under the new registration system set to be introduced later this year.
April 18, 2019