HKMA instructs Hong Kong’s 165 banks to allow only vaccinated staff in branches and offices, stepping up government’s vaccine pass policy

HKMA “strongly encourages” banks to admit only staff who have received at least one vaccine shot into their workplace, or get them to be tested regularly

Banks have two weeks to notify the HKMA when they would enforce the measure

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People queue up to receive the Sinovac vaccine at Kwun Chung Sports Centre on 27January 2022. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 9:38pm, 18 Feb 2022

Hong Kong’s monetary authority has instructed the city’s banks to allow only vaccinated employees to enter their branches and offices, as it enforces the government’s vaccine pass policy amid a surge on Covid-19 cases.

The de facto central bank “strongly encourages” banks to admit only staff who have received at least one vaccine shot into their workplace, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said. Banks have two weeks to notify the HKMA when they would enforce the measure.

Hong Kong’s government offices and financial regulators including the HKMA, the Insurance Authority and the Mandatory Provident Schemes Authority began implementing the so-called vaccine pass policy on February 16. Staff who are unfit to receive Covid-19 vaccines on medical grounds need to be tested regularly.

“If [a bank] decides not to implement a vaccine pass arrangement, it should provide the HKMA with details of its considerations,” said the HKMA’s deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang in a circular sent to all chief executives of the city’s 165 licensed banks. “In view of the recent surge in Covid-19 infections involving new, highly transmissible strains, [banks] are advised to step up their precautionary measures for protecting their staff and customers and ensuring the uninterrupted provision of essential banking services.”

Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), at a media briefing on granting lofty virtual Banking licenses on 27 March 2019. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The stepped-up enforcement followed a record number of new infections in the city, which has sickened about 40,000 people, including dozens of bank employees, forcing lenders to shut one in every three branches in the city. Hong Kong’s banks operate a network of 1,100 branches and outlets in the city.

HKMA instructs Hong Kong’s 165 banks to allow only vaccinated staff in branches and offices, stepping up government’s vaccine pass policy

HKMA “strongly encourages” banks to admit only staff who have received at least one vaccine shot into their workplace, or get them to be tested regularly Banks have two weeks to notify the HKMA when they would enforce the measure

HKMA “strongly encourages” banks to admit only staff who have received at least one vaccine shot into their workplace, or get them to be tested regularly

Banks have two weeks to notify the HKMA when they would enforce the measure