The cheque’s end is nigh: Hong Kong’s banks set road map to phase out paper payment in their embrace of e-payments
- The Hong Kong Association of Banks will consider the future of cheques as a payment method amid a 34 per cent decline in their use over the past five years
- An HKAB delegation will visit Thailand this month to promote the city, while plans are afoot to explore ties in the Middle East, chair Luanne Lim says
The use of cheques in the city could end as the Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) works out a road map this year to phase it out amid an irreversible shift to electronic payments.
Electronic payment methods have taken off, said Luanne Lim, chairwoman of HKAB, pointing to PayMe, Faster Payment System (FPS) and e-wallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.
“It is time to consult the industry and develop a transition road map for the demise of the cheque,” said Lim in her first media briefing last week after taking over the role at HKAB this month.
Three years of Covid has pushed the public towards digital payments, leading to a decline in the use of cheques, said Lim, who is also the Hong Kong CEO of HSBC. The HKAB’s chairmanship is rotated annually between the bosses of HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong), the three note-issuing banks in the city.
Lim said it had not yet been decided if the payment method would be totally phased out. The issue will be discussed by a task force set up by the HKAB to explore various possibilities and options to work out a road map to encourage cheque users to shift to digital payments.
