Johnnie Hui’s family credit card was cancelled: “HSBC acts like a bandit”

The exiled former Legislative Council member, Raymond Hui, said on a social media platform that all HSBC credit cards for himself and his family were cancelled by the bank unilaterally and without notice on the grounds of commercial decision. Xu Zhi Feng quoted HSBC as saying that the outstanding amount of the card number in the credit card will be deducted from the account; on the contrary, if there is a balance, it may not be possible to return the money to him. He also suggested that Raymond Hsu call again later to “see how the bank can handle”.

Raymond Hui said that he and his family have a surplus of credit cards more than they owe, and the balance is about tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. He said his family and decades are the bank’s customers, credit record is good, questioned now a “business decision” unrelated to credit, the bank arbitrarily cancel the customer credit card, and described as the embezzlement of assets, behavior is like a robber, urged the regulator to investigate.

He pointed out that the incident reflects the business sector in the national security law, dependence and obedience to the regime, can completely override the law and policy, he asked HSBC to publicly account for the incident and request the regulator to investigate, or will consider other international follow-up actions. HSBC has not yet responded to the incident.

The Democratic Party’s deputy spokesman for financial policy/consumer rights policy issued a statement in response to the incident, criticizing HSBC for freezing the accounts of Johnnie Hui and his family earlier, which had not been made by court order or legal requirement, and HSBC did not give a reasonable explanation. The latest unilateral cancellation of a credit card of Raymond Hui, but also with the normal operation of the bank are very different; account for the refund of the surplus is private property, HSBC

Statement that HSBC’s actions and decisions, many Hong Kong people and consumers on the Hong Kong financial system and HSBC’s confidence suffered a major blow, HSBC should immediately give a public account of the incident, and stop all unreasonable impact on the rights and interests of customers.

Johnnie Hui is involved in nine charges in Hong Kong, earlier on an official visit to Denmark and then to London, England, and officially announced his exile.

The following is the full text of Raymond Hui’s Facebook posting:

HSBC has confirmed that all HSBC credit cards for me and my family have been cancelled unilaterally and without notice due to the bank’s ‘commercial decision’. HSBC said that the outstanding amount of the card in the credit card will be deducted from the account; on the contrary, if there is a balance, it may not be possible to return the money to me, and asked me to call again later to ‘see how the bank can handle’.

The following points are worthy of public attention.

1. According to what the government has said publicly, the police never asked HSBC to cancel my credit card account and that of my family. The decision to cancel the credit cards was a political decision made by HSBC to help the regime fight opposition.
2. The credit card accounts of me and my family members have a surplus of more than they owe because of refunds. The balance (about tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars) is private property protected by the Basic Law of Hong Kong and is now illegally appropriated by HSBC without any explanation.
3. My family and I have been HSBC Premier customers for decades and have always had a good credit record, and our past property mortgages and mortgage repayments were all handled through HSBC. Now, under a ‘business decision’ that has nothing to do with credit, the bank has arbitrarily cancelled the credit cards of its customers and embezzled their assets.

For me and my family, the cancellation of my credit card is no big deal, I can apply for it at other banks around the world. But what makes my experience important to Hong Kong is that it reflects the dependence and subservience of the business community to the regime under the national security law, which can completely override laws and policies, and the regulator can only be ‘politically correct’ and can do nothing about it.

An old bank can become more ugly and degenerate, how to continue to take advantage of the speculation of the Hong Kong banking and financial system, you can leave your name to continue to watch. I hereby solemnly request HSBC to publicly account for the incident, and request the regulator to investigate, otherwise I will consider other international follow-up actions, details to be announced later.