Hong Kong Legislative Council member Wu Kit-chuang posted on the X platform today that Web3 companies encountered obstacles when opening bank accounts, which seriously affected their business operations.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority released a virtual banking report earlier. I appreciate the SAR government's support for the upgrading of banking services and the development of virtual banks in the past few years, but at the same time, my team made an opinion on Web3 Company's banking services in Hong Kong. The survey showed that Web3 Company had difficulties in opening accounts, resulting in inefficiency. develop business locally. Therefore, I will propose at today’s press conference: 1.… pic.twitter.com/srDiDOhvwC

— Johnny Ng 吴杰庄 (@Johnny_nkc) August 9, 2024

He emphasized that virtual banks should diversify their services and develop in parallel with traditional banks. Wu Jiezhuang also suggested that Hong Kong should upgrade virtual banks to manage virtual assets, which is consistent with the government's Web3 development goals.

Wu said his team recently conducted a survey of more than 120 cryptocurrency and Web3 companies entering Hong Kong after 2022, the Star Daily reported. The survey results showed that about 95 per cent of companies had tried to open a local bank account, with 70 per cent of respondents saying their banks required their shareholders or directors to visit Hong Kong multiple times. About 20 percent of companies successfully opened a bank account within two months to five months, while 54 percent took at least six months or longer to open an account, the report said.

Although the Hong Kong government has repeatedly reiterated its commitment to developing Hong Kong into a global cryptocurrency hub, difficulties for cryptocurrency companies in opening bank accounts persist. Hong Kong opened its doors to cryptocurrency companies last year and officially launched a licensing system for cryptocurrency trading platforms in June 2023, allowing licensed exchanges to provide retail trading services.

In addition to Ng Kit-chuang's call, another Hong Kong lawmaker, Chiu Tat-kan, also expressed concerns about the "overly stringent regulations" in the licensing process for cryptocurrency exchanges. He criticized these regulations as having forced some major global exchanges to withdraw their licenses. Licensing applications in Hong Kong, including well-known exchanges such as OKX, Gate.io and HTX.

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