Retail banking

Advance fee fraud scams go round and round. It's been a while since the "I was in government and I have a huge secret profit from over-invoicing" fraud came around but it's back and it's libelling the head of a central bank. Or, it would be if she hadn't died last year.

Media Release 1 December 2020 18:00 HK time.

Temporary suspension of the Coin Cart services

The extraordinary case of an elderly man who was forced into expensive legal proceedings to recover almost GBP200,000 accidentally paid into the wrong bank account could have been so easily avoided if UK banks operated, under the auspices of regulators, a simple cross-check of information. It happens elsewhere.

A notice published on the website of Standard Chartered Bank, Malaysia, says that moneys that have until now been covered by the Central Bank's deposit guarantee scheme are no longer so covered. Especially surprising is the formal distinguishing between Mainland and Labuan bank accounts.

It was an enormous mistake to appoint Mark Carney as the Governor of the Bank of England. In a job that is supposed to be a-political, because the Bank of England is supposed to be independent, Carney has demonstrated a willingness to make political statements, endeavour to influence policy and now in what should be his last major speech, he's announced an astonishingly reformist policy shift in the weeks before his term comes to an end. All the fuss in the media this morning is about Facebook's Libra. However, there is something that has the potential to cause far more systemic problems than that.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today announces a new service schedule of the two “Coin Carts” under the Coin Collection Programme, for the period of 20 May 2019 up to 28 July 2019. The schedule and other details of the Programme are shown on the HKMA webpage (coincollection.hkma.gov.hk). (press release) .

Comment: Virtual banking is recognised, cryto-currencies are not.

It's long been an issue in the USA and it's spreading across the world as dozens of small towns in the UK can testify. Banks, which are not a public service, are closing (or not opening) branches in poor or small communities. The irony, some say, is that those are the very communities that most need physical banks. In the USA, several states are once more tackling the problem.

On Friday 13th July 2018, the UK's Serious Fraud Office obtained, from a Magistrates' Court, a warrant for the arrest of Benedikt Sobotka has been issued over his failure to appear for questioning in an ongoing corruption investigation into ENRC and related companies. Failure to appear when required to do so is itself a criminal offence, independent of the allegations under investigation.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued a warning relating to a suspicious internet banking mobile application (App) related to Wing Lung Bank Limited.

No one can accuse the South Koreans of rushing into things: the Financial Services Commission has just approved the country's first internet-only bank to commence operations. It's the first bank (of any kind) to launch for 24 years.

You know all that fuss in India about withdrawing bank-notes in a so-called but misnamed "demonetisation" scheme? Well, they were high value notes. What would happen if a country decided to withdraw a low-value coin and replace it? We will all find out in the UK in just a few weeks.

In July 2010, Euromoney reported "regulators in Gibraltar say they shut [Reincarnation Bank] down, it subsequently re-emerged six months later." It's had a checkered history, but today, you can still visit a website with that name.

The Jakarta Post reports that it has seen a copy of a draft banking Bill which has been "specifically developed to target foreign banks operating here," it says.

Three people have been arrested, and cash, goods and items used in the commission of offences seized in Hong Kong as police investigate a rapid-fire ATM scam involving data written to mag stripe cards and used in just two ATMs over a two week period.