Fractional-reserve banking, the most common form of banking practiced by commercial banks worldwide, involves banks accepting deposits from customers and making loans to borrowers while holding in reserve an amount equal to only a fraction of the bank's deposit liabilities. Bank reserves are held as cash in the bank or as balances in the bank's account at a central bank. The country's central bank determines the minimum amount that banks must hold in liquid assets, called the "reserve requirement" or "reserve ratio". Banks usually hold more than this minimum amount, keeping excess reserves.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is Hong Kong's central banking institution. It is a government authority founded on 1 April 1993 when the Office of the Exchange Fund and the Office of the Commissioner of Banking merged. The organisation reports directly to the Financial Secretary.
A bank run occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system, numerous customers withdraw cash from deposit accounts with a financial institution at the same time because they believe that the financial institution is, or might become, insolvent; they keep the cash or transfer it into other assets, such as government bonds, precious metals or gemstones. When they transfer funds to another institution, it may be characterized as a capital flight. As a bank run progresses, it generates its own momentum: as more people withdraw cash, the likelihood of default increases, triggering further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it runs out of cash and thus faces sudden bankruptcy. To combat a bank run, a bank may limit how much cash each customer may withdraw, suspend withdrawals altogether, or promptly acquire more cash from other banks or from the central bank, besides other measures.
The reserve requirement is a central bank regulation that sets the minimum amount of reserves that must be held by a commercial bank. The minimum reserve is generally determined by the central bank to be no less than a specified percentage of the amount of deposit liabilities the commercial bank owes to its customers. The commercial bank's reserves normally consist of cash owned by the bank and stored physically in the bank vault, plus the amount of the commercial bank's balance in that bank's account with the central bank.
The Bank of East Asia Limited, often abbreviated to BEA, is a Hong Kong banking and financial services company, headquartered in Central, Hong Kong. It is currently the largest independent local Hong Kong bank, and one of two remaining family-run Hong Kong banks, with the other being Dah Sing Bank. It continues to be run by 3rd and 4th generation of the Li family.
Bank of China Limited also known as its short name Bank of China or BOCHK, is a subsidiary of the Bank of China. Bank of China is the second-largest commercial banking group in Hong Kong in terms of assets and customer deposits, with more than 190 branches across Hong Kong as of the end of 2019. It is also one of the three commercial banks licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to issue banknotes for the Hong Kong dollar.
Bank regulation is a form of government regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, designed to create market transparency between banking institutions and the individuals and corporations with whom they conduct business, among other things. As regulation focusing on key factors in the financial markets, it forms one of the three components of financial law, the other two being case law and self-regulating market practices.
Basel II is the second of the Basel Accords,, which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
The Shanghai Commercial Bank is an international bank based in Hong Kong. Its subsidiary companies offer banking and financial services across the world, but mainly in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The bank was founded by Chen Guangfu in 1915.
Dah Sing Banking Group Limited (DSBG) is a Hong Kong-based banking and financial company, headquartered in Wan Chai. It has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2004. It has three main banking subsidiaries providing relevant services through a branch network of around 70 branches over Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China, and a securities trading company.
Exchange Bank Association was originally established in 1897 in Hong Kong as a bank association in dealing with the exchange business. It then became an organization that set interest rates on bank deposits to keep bank competition alive and balanced.
China's banking sector is the largest in the world by assets, with total assets of about USD 49.5 trillion as of the end of 2020.[11] The "big four/five" state-owned commercial banks are the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the Agricultural Bank of China, all of which are among the largest banks in the world as of 2018. The Bank of Communications is sometimes included. Other notable big and also the largest banks in the world are China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank.
A non-banking financial institution (NBFI) or non-bank financial company (NBFC) is a financial institution that does not have a full banking license or is not supervised by a national or international banking regulatory agency. NBFC facilitate bank-related financial services, such as investment, risk pooling, contractual savings, and market brokering. Examples of these include insurance firms, pawn shops, cashier's check issuers, check cashing locations, payday lending, currency exchanges, and microloan organizations. Alan Greenspan has identified the role of NBFIs in strengthening an economy, as they provide "multiple alternatives to transform an economy's savings into capital investment which act as backup facilities should the primary form of intermediation fail."
The Clearing House Automated Transfer System, or CHATS, is a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for the transfer of funds in Hong Kong. It is operated by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited, a private company jointly owned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Association of Banks. Transactions in four currency denominations may be settled using CHATS: Hong Kong dollar, renminbi, euro, and US dollar. In 2005, the value of Hong Kong dollar CHATS transactions averaged HK$467 billion per day, which amounted to a third of Hong Kong's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP); the total value of transactions that year was 84 times the GDP of Hong Kong.
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation is a government-run Philippine deposit insurance fund. It was established on June 22, 1963 by Republic Act 3591. It guarantees deposits up to P500,000. Primary Functions of PDIC is to protect the small investors/depositors and to build a strong banking confidence.
Basel III is a global, voluntary regulatory framework on bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk. This third installment of the Basel Accords was developed in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the financial crisis of 2007–08. It is intended to strengthen bank capital requirements by increasing minimum capital requirements, holdings of high quality liquid assets, and decreasing bank leverage.
The 2003 banking crisis of Myanmar was a major bank run in private banking that hit Myanmar (Burma) in February 2003. It started with a decline in the trust for private financial institutions following the collapse of small financial enterprises and proliferating rumors about the liquidity of major private banks. Leading to a bank run on the Asia Wealth Bank, the crisis quickly spread to all major private banks in the country. It led to severe liquidity problems for private banks and scarcity of the kyat. Though exact data is not available, it is believed that the crisis caused major economic hardship for many in Myanmar.
The Companies Registry is a government department under the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong. Its responsibilities include the registration of Hong Kong companies and non-Hong Kong companies under the Companies Ordinance, open-ended fund companies under the Securities and Futures Ordinance and limited partnership funds under the Limited Partnerships Funds Ordinance. It administers the licensing regime for trust and corporate service providers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance as well as the licensing regime for money lenders under the Money Lenders Ordinance.
