Hong Kong banks to get new powers to trace, flag suspicious accounts linked to scams
Police and banks will exchange information on scam-linked accounts as authorities step up efforts to combat financial fraud
Hong Kong banks will be granted powers to trace and flag suspicious accounts linked to scams by exchanging information with police, putting questionable transactions on hold and having officers meet clients in person.
The Monetary Authority on Thursday revealed the new system for information exchange as a part of joint efforts with police to clamp down on scams and money laundering amid a rise in deception cases in recent years.
Raymond Chan King-wang, the executive director of the city’s de facto central bank, said the force would share with banks the suspicious phone numbers and email addresses already stored in Scameter, a search engine platform launched by police in 2022.
The banks will then flag corresponding accounts that match the information to review their activities, monitor future transactions and report the newly identified suspicious accounts to police.
“Through this continuous cycle, we hope to find out and uproot the mule accounts from all the banks,” Chan said, referring to accounts that had been sold or lent to criminals to help transfer or process illegally obtained funds.
The executive director said that once bank staff were alerted to a transaction made to a suspicious account, they would contact account holders and tell them that a pending transaction would be temporarily put on hold. The clients would then be asked to go to the bank for a meeting.