Hong Kong Justice Secretary’s Standard Chartered mortgage is under scrutiny as US sanctions on city officials sever banking ties

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah took out a mortgage with Standard Chartered Bank for her HK$26 million (US$3.4 million) Tuen Mun villa, bought in 2008, according to Land Registry records

The villa is among Cheng’s five properties in Hong Kong, adding to an apartment each in Beijing and in Yunnan province, according to the July declaration of interests by Hong Kong’s Executive Council members

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Aerial view of the adjoining property owned by Otto Poon Lok-to (centre right) and his wife, the Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah (left) at Villa de Mer in Tuen Mun. Poon was fined HK$20,000 in 2019 after being found guilty of building an unauthorised pool in his garden. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 12:49pm, 21 Aug 2020Updated: 11:02pm, 21 Aug 2020

Two of the seven Hong Kong officials sanctioned by the United States government have outstanding mortgages held with international banks, obligations which are coming under scrutiny as financial institutions move to sever ties with them to comply with US regulations.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah took out a mortgage with Standard Chartered Bank for her HK$26 million (US$3.4 million) Tuen Mun villa, bought in 2008, according to Land Registry records. Commissioner of Police Chris Tang Ping-keung transferred his mortgage from HSBC to Bank of China (Hong Kong) on August 4, three days before the US put him on the sanction list, record showed.

The scrutiny underscores how US sanctions can make day-to-day life more difficult for so-called specially designated nationals and their families, as international banks who want to continue to access the US financial system suspend their businesses. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who does not have any property registered under her name in the city, said she is having difficulty using her credit cards, an inconvenience that she described as “meaningless” in her interview with Chinese state television.

“It would be safer to shift the mortgage to big mainland banks,” said Raymond Chong, managing director at mortgage referral brokerage firm StarPro Agency.

Workers setting up scaffolding at the Tuen Mun home of Secretary for Justice, Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, on January 11, 2018. The building authority approved a two-month plan to remove three illegal structures on the property. Photo: Winson Wong

US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act into law last month, giving American regulators the ability to sanction non-US banks who engage in “significant” transactions with individuals who helped end the city’s “high degree of autonomy” from mainland China. The legislation was passed after the US failed to dissuade China’s parliament from enacting a national security law for Hong Kong.