HSBC Cuts Hong Kong Prime Rate for First Time in 11 Years
The move is unlikely to have much bearing on the local cost of borrowing as lenders don’t necessarily pass on rate to the public
(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc lowered its Hong Kong prime lending rate for the first time in 11 years, underscoring the economic challenges facing the financial hub.
The London-based bank cut its best lending rate by 12.5 basis points to 5% in Hong Kong. The city’s government is set to release data Thursday that’s expected to show the local economy entered a technical recession in the third quarter, with retail and tourism sectors battered by almost five months of anti-government protests.
Standard Chartered Plc, another major lender in the city, soon followed HSBC’s announcement, reducing its best lending rate by 12.5 basis points to 5.25%.
HSBC’s cut, to take effect Nov. 1, will likely help the Hong Kong economy and companies, George Leung, the bank’s Asia-Pacific adviser, said at a briefing. There’s not much more room for banks in the city to lower further, and the reduction will probably be the last this year, he said.
The move comes after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its benchmark interest rate Thursday, in line with the city’s currency peg to the dollar following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s reduction in borrowing costs. The HKMA lowered its base rate to 2.00% from 2.25%, hours after the Fed’s quarter-point cut, according to the institution’s page on Bloomberg. As the Hong Kong dollar is linked to the greenback, the territory essentially imports U.S. monetary policy.
“Looking ahead, we expect there’s still downward pressure on the U.S. rate,” Leung said. “This is likely to make the operating environment for banks like HSBC more challenging in the future, but we hope that it will bring some relief to our customers and maybe a little bit of sunshine to the gloomy economic outlook.”
The Hong Kong government has laid out policy support including boosting loans to small businesses and cutting banks’ capital buffers to mitigate an economic downturn through the months-long unrest. It also announced plans this month to help first-time homebuyers break into the world’s least-affordable property market.
“It is hard to say whether the Hong Kong interbank rates may follow the U.S. rate,” HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue had said at a briefing earlier Thursday. “However, the U.S. rate cut does reflect the downward pressure on the global economy, to which Hong Kong is not immune.”
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Jeffrey Black in Hong Kong at jblack25@bloomberg.net;Enda Curran in hong kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, ;Jun Luo at jluo6@bloomberg.net, David Scheer
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Bloomberg