HSBC suspends Hong Kong protest supporting bank account

In the latest turn of events, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) bank has blockchain a Hong Kong protest supporting bank account.

The 2019 Hong Kong protests or the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement has now taken a new turn, as this prolonged protest is the confrontation between the activists of pro-democracy and their Beijing supported government.

Hong Kong protest supporting bank account

It seems that now the financial establishment is inclining towards one side in this conflict situation. Reportedly, HSBC, the Banking giant decided to suspend any account that is used for the support of the protest in Hong Kong and thus the Hong Kong protest supporting bank account

HSBC suspended the corporate account earlier this week after getting to know that the account was neither a corporate account nor it matched the business purpose as stated by its client, Prime Management Services Ltd. This suspension is taking place after the ban notified the account holder to withdraw its balance within a period of thirty days.

I am disappointed about HSBC’s decision to close account of Spark Alliance as it is apparently a political decision under tremendous pressure from Beijing. (Spark Alliance’s account has been put into operation to cover legal & medical fees for arrested protesters in HK.)

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) November 20, 2019

As per the reports, the account was collecting donations for Spar Alliance HK, a non-profit group. The funds were covering the medical and legal expenses of the protestors, and this purpose was not mentioned in the intended use of the account.

The client declared that the account was for used only for commercial purposes; however; it was being used for fundraising to support the protestors. As a huge amount of money was being channelled through the account on a daily basis, the bank had concerns like other banks related to money-laundering.

The spokesperson of HSBC stated that as the bank reviews the customers’ accounts on a daily basis and in case an activity is spotted that differs from the stated purpose of the account, or if some information is missing, the bank does have the authority to suspend the account.

However, the spokesperson didn’t address the Hong Kong protest supporting bank account directly in this statement.

Featured Image by Needpix.