Chinese State-Owned Banks Extend Crypto-Friendly Hand to Hong Kong Firms
China’s state-owned banks are offering services to local cryptocurrency companies in Hong Kong as the city embraces a more friendly regulatory stance.
According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, a number of Chinese state-owned banks in Hong Kong have started offering services to crypto companies, an indication that the recent move by Hong Kong to become a major digital asset center has backing from Beijing.
The report, which cited people familiar with the matter, said the Hong Kong arms of some Chines banks, including Bank of Communications, Bank of China, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, have either started offering banking services to local crypto firms or have made inquiries.
One source claimed that sales representative from one Chinese bank even visited the office of a crypto company to pitch its services.
The development comes as local crypto companies in the city have been facing increasing difficulty when trying to set up corporate bank accounts to pay staff and vendors.
It also comes at a time when many crypto firms are looking for new banking partners in the wake of the recent banking crisis in the US that saw three major crypto-friendly banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Capital, and Signature Bank, close their doors.
The push by Chinese lenders “means a lot to us because it’s something you’d never expect at this point, even around the globe”, said Sung Min Cho, founder and chief executive of beoble, a provider of a messaging system for decentralized applications.
Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christian Hui said during a recent speech that more than 80 virtual asset-related firms had shown interest in establishing a presence in the city since October 2022.
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