Chinanews.com, March 3 (Zhongxin Finance Peng Jingru) A few days ago, "after the 'thunderstorm' of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, it was revealed that a large number of Chinese assets were withdrawn from Switzerland and the United States, and Hong Kong was the preferred destination" caused concern. Subsequently, news such as "Hong Kong bank employees do not take holidays" and "HSBC branches are open for 24 consecutive days" fermented at the same time, are the rich really transferring assets? How true are these messages?

Source: The "Chinese Business Foundation" did not find such a group

An earlier source was a heavily reprinted image that included: "According to insiders of the Chinese Business Consortium, in January, only Chinese assets were transferred from the United States and Switzerland to $760 billion and $1650 billion, respectively. The world's richest people have abandoned Swiss banks, especially Chinese customers, and millions of Chinese billionaires have abandoned a Swiss bank account. More than US$2400 billion of Chinese assets relocated to Hong Kong and Singapore. According to a bank employee in Hong Kong, they have stopped taking vacations because the business has been too busy recently and there are too many people depositing. ”

Screenshot of the content of the image uploaded online.

In response to the source of the news, "insiders of the Chinese Business Foundation", Zhongxin Finance searched for this organization through the search engine, and the results that popped up were mostly illegal fundraising, fraud, and pyramid scheme-related content.

Zhongxin Finance also searched through the Qichacha APP with "China Business Foundation" as the keyword, and the two most relevant results came up with "Zhonghui China Business Foundation Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd." and "CITIC China Business Foundation International Investment Group Co., Ltd." The former is a small and micro enterprise with a registered capital of 1000 million yuan, while the latter is marked as "dissolved".

Screenshot of the search content of the Qichacha APP.

Screenshot of the search content of the Qichacha APP.

HSBC is open for 7 days to meet the needs of account opening after customs clearance

Regarding the news of "asset inflow into Hong Kong" and "7 consecutive days of continuous operation of HSBC branches", Zhongxin Finance called HSBC Hong Kong's customer service officer to inquire and learned that several branches of HSBC Hong Kong are operating for 7 days a week on a trial basis, mainly because of the peak of overseas and mainland tourists after customs clearance, and the increase in customer demand for banks.

"At present, only three branches of HSBC Hong Kong have taken the lead in trial operation 3 days a week, including HSBC Jade and Premier Centre at Canton Ocean Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Park Lane Premier Centre in Causeway Bay and Kaiyuan Road Branch in Kwun Tong. The three branches will be extended to 7pm on Saturdays and 3pm to 3pm on Sundays from 25 March. HSBC Hong Kong's customer service officer said.

Screenshot of HSBC's official website.

According to the Beijing News, HSBC Hong Kong said that since Hong Kong completely lifted the new crown epidemic-related entry prevention and control measures in early February, the number of visitors to Hong Kong has continued to rise, and the number of overseas Hong Kong people or non-local residents using HSBC branch services has increased significantly, and the number of new non-local resident customers recorded by HSBC Hong Kong in February has recovered to the monthly average of the first half of 2.

According to the Securities Times, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority responded to the newspaper that as an international financial center, Hong Kong often handles the inflow and outflow of funds arising from different business activities, and the HKMA will maintain close ties with the financial industry and other stakeholders to promote the sustainable development of Hong Kong's financial market.

Expert: "Money flows from the United States, Switzerland to Hong Kong" is possible

Is the key message that "rich people withdraw money from the United States and Switzerland and save it in Hong Kong" true?

"Logically, there is some truth." Li Yong, deputy director of the Expert Committee of the China Society of International Trade, said that financial turmoil will inevitably lead financial asset owners to seek safe havens, resulting in capital flowing to safer destinations, which is in line with the hedging mentality. At the same time, a large amount of capital flows will lead to new financial instability, which is one of the lagging effects of the Credit Suisse crisis.

A senior researcher at a Chinese bank, who did not want to be named, also believes that there is such a possibility, on the one hand, the recent banking crisis, including Silicon Valley Bank, has affected the liabilities and asset management of many banks; On the other hand, Switzerland was previously a neutral country, and many people thought it was safer to keep their assets in Switzerland, but now they find that Switzerland will also participate in political games and freeze assets, so they transfer assets.

"But the asset transfer process is gradual, after all, Credit Suisse's problems have been around for some time, including rating downgrades, persistent negative external coverage, and investors' concerns are justified." The researcher said. (End)