Clifford Chance
Walking the tightrope: Hong Kong banks warned not to be heavy-handed in AML checks
22 September 2016
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has warned authorised institutions (AIs) that applying overly stringent anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) checks when opening and maintaining customer accounts risks excluding legitimate businesses from basic financial services. The HKMA's comments come amid concerns voiced by the city's 29 chambers of commerce about foreign investors not being able to open company bank accounts in Hong Kong.
