Shuli Ren, Columnist

Hong Kong Protests Are Giving Banks a Headache

Monday’s unprecedented unrest may heap further trouble on a financial sector already suffering from soaring funding costs.

July 2, 2019 at 4:38 AM UTC

By Shuli Ren

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Hong Kong is losing its aura of wealth and stability.
Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

For years, global investors and financiers have identified Hong Kong as a wealthy, stable city. On many fronts, this assumption is now being called into question.

Hong Kong dollar funding costs have soared amid tightening liquidity and political protests. Three-month Hibor rose above its U.S. dollar counterpart last month for the first time since December 2016. As central banks elsewhere start to cut rates, Hong Kong is singularly walking the other way, tightening money-market conditions to defend the city’s currency peg to the dollar.