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Hongkongers, mainland residents embrace Payment Connect service on first day

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Hongkongers and mainland residents jumped at the chance to send money across the border via a new electronic payment service on its first day of operation on Sunday.

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The so-called Payment Connect was operating smoothly, with 6,900 Northbound and 19,000 Southbound transactions as of 6pm, according to a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The average transaction amounts for Northbound and Southbound were around 800 yuan (US$111) and 3,100 yuan, respectively.
The People’s Bank of China and the HKMA announced the linkage on Friday. Connecting Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) to the mainland’s Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS), it allows 315 million users to transfer money across the border to pay for travel, meals, education, medical services, salaries and other daily activities. More use cases are being formulated.

Through the scheme, China’s financial authorities granted Hong Kong residents a new daily remittance quota for the yuan, in a move that HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man said would boost the city’s status as an international financial centre and a trading hub for offshore yuan.

The 17 million FPS registered users are able to remit up to HK$10,000 (US$1,282) per day for each linked bank account to 298 million users of the IBPS. The number of FPS users exceeds Hong Kong’s population because individuals can have more than one account.

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Mainland residents are limited to US$50,000 a year in overall overseas remittances, while Hong Kong residents are subject to an 80,000 yuan ceiling in daily transfers to accounts of the same name on the mainland. Six banks each on the mainland and in Hong Kong are currently supporting the services.

Bank of China (Hong Kong) said in a statement on Sunday that it completed several transactions under Pay Connect, including the first personal cross-border transfer in Hong Kong, where a client sent a remittance to its Shenzhen branch.

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