E-Wallets & Banking 
for Hong Kong Companies

Formerly, companies incorporated in Hong Kong were able to open accounts at a number of major local banks. However, in recent years, opening a conventional bank account in Hong Kong has become far more complicated and time consuming.  Currently, only local and/or known customers can easily open  a conventional Hong Kong bank account.

This leaves those establishing a Hong Kong company with two alternatives:

Banking Outside HK  E-Wallet Accounts

WHAT IS E-MONEY?
WHAT IS AN E-WALLET?

E-Wallets or e-Money operate in a similar way to PayPal which is perhaps the best known example. In essence, they provide a stored value facility outside the general banking system and often provide, depending on the provider, some or all of the following services:


Summary of e-Wallet account offerings:

  • An online 'virtual' account, often operated by a mobile phone app, which provides a dashboard from which all the provider’s other services are operated. You will also have the ability to both make and receive payments to other account holders - usually completely free of charge.
  • One or more bank account numbers (with a recognised bank) into which payments can be received (receiving accounts). In some cases these accounts can directly be used for outgoing payments, although this is much less common.
  • One or more pre-paid debit cards often in US$, € or £. These can be topped up from the dashboard, used just like a normal bank card e.g. Internet, shops and ATM withdrawals, or are effectively debit cards against the relevant currency account.
  • Foreign exchange. Most providers offer very good rates for converting currency. In almost all cases these rates are better than offered by the banks.
  • Merchant services - the ability to collect payments from your customers by:
    a) shopping cart
    b) pay-by-link* 

    *Pay-by-link is offered by some providers, whereby you send an invoice and a payment link (by email) to your customer and they settle by clicking the link and entering their credit card details. 

Which e-Wallet account do we recommend?

It is rare for one provider to offer ALL the required services and we would often recommend to open two accounts with different providers to get the best combination of services. In terms of costs, it is almost always free to open a basic e-Wallet account, although some services e.g. a prepaid card will incur a modest fee. Although no minimum balance is required it is necessary to use the account periodically to avoid dormant accoutn charges.

For companies formed by us we offer the option to receive a detailed report summarising the various e-Wallets which will be suitable for Hong Kong company. 

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Types of
e-Wallet accounts

There are two types of e-Wallet accounts:

1.  Corporate and
2. Personal

Some e-Wallet accounts require you to have both if you wish to open a Coprorate e-Wallet account.

Provided the information requested is complete, you can expect a corporate operating account in little more than a week. 

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Corporate e-Wallet account

The advantage of e-Wallets / e-Money accounts over banks is that they can be opened in a matter of days (rather than weeks). Like all financial institutions they do need to identify their clients and verify company information. This is usually done via dashboard/mobile app and in stages.

Personal e-Wallet account

Personal accounts are even easier and are often confirmed almost instantly, subject to proof of ID being supplied.




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Tai Pan Management Services Ltd., Company Service Provider Licence No. TC004077 
Registered in Hong Kong. No 1942748.

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