FAQ

The online identity verification website (including QR code) ceased on 30 November 2024. Before the website ceased, we have reminded customers several times via SMS and other channels to complete online identity verification. From 1 December, we will only accept identity verification via offline branch visit. Thank you for your understanding.

Please visit HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) with your joint account holder to complete the offline identity verification. The materials that both parties need to bring are: valid Personal Identification and real-name registration material of mobile phone number (please refer to the note below for specific material requirements*). If both account holders under the joint account have completed identity verification, and then the information verification of Citi China and HSBC China accounts needs to be settled with the assistance of our branch staff. Once relevant documents are submitted and verified, you can use your joint account normally on the second working day.

*If you are a Mainland Chinese resident with a domestic mobile phone number, please authorize real-name verification of your mobile phone number when applying for identity verification. If you do not agree or cannot authorize real-name verification, please show any invoice/bill/screenshot of app personal profile page with owner's name and phone number in the latest three months, which is issued by your communication operator or downloaded from communication operator app. Special reminder: If you use a non-China mobile phone number, please prepare the materials provided by the overseas communication operator that meet the above requirements before visiting HSBC China branch, preferably in Chinese or English.

Please bring your valid Personal Identification and real-name registration material of mobile phone number (please refer to the note below for specific material requirements*) to HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) and complete offline identity verification. Once relevant documents are submitted and verified, you can use your account normally on the second working day.

*If you are a Mainland Chinese resident with a domestic mobile phone number, please authorize real-name verification of your mobile phone number when applying for identity verification. If you do not agree or cannot authorize real-name verification, please show any invoice/bill/screenshot of app personal profile page with owner's name and phone number in the latest three months, which is issued by your communication operator or downloaded from communication operator app. Special reminder: If you use a non-China mobile phone number, please prepare the materials provided by the overseas communication operator that meet the above requirements before visiting HSBC China branch, preferably in Chinese or English.

Note: Online identity verification website ceased on 30 November 2024. Please visit a nearby HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) to check your “Phone Banking Number” from 1 December 2024, or call at below customer service hotline.

You can use your Phone Banking Number on "Authentication Successful" page of online identification verification and Phone Banking PIN attached in the Phone Banking PIN letter to register. If you have completed identity verification but did not retain your Phone Banking Number, you can scan the online identity verification QR code again to find the number. If you can’t find your Phone Banking PIN, you can call our dedicated customer service hotline (+86) 400 820 0006 or (+86 21) 5060 6440 or visit HSBC China retail business branches in person to obtain. For further assistance, please contact your Relationship Manager. Please note that, the above dedicated customer service hotline will cease since 1 January 2025. The service hotline 95366 will continue to serve you. Please contact (+86 21) 95366 if you are calling from overseas, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR or Taiwan.

Besides, you can access our official website at https://www.hsbc.com.cn/en-cn/ and click on the personal Online Banking entrance or scan the QR code below to download the HSBC Bank app. On the page to select the authentication method, choose "Phone Banking", and enter your Phone Banking Number and Phone Banking PIN to register for HSBC China's Online Banking and Mobile Banking services. Also, you can access app-guide-download-en.pdf (hsbc.com.cn) to find the Mobile Banking Registration Guidance.

After your wealth and investment product holdings transferred to HSBC China, the gain and loss of your holdings will be calculated from the Confirmation Date of Transfer*, and the initial cost of your product holdings in HSBC China will be set as the units transferred multiplied by the latest NAV on the Confirmation Date of Transfer.

*Please contact our dedicated customer service hotline at (+86) 400 820 0006 or (+86 21) 5060 6440 to inquire the Confirmation Date of Transfer of relevant products. Please note that, the above dedicated customer service hotline will cease since 1 January 2025. The service hotline 95366 will continue to serve you. Please contact (+86 21) 95366 if you are calling from overseas, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR or Taiwan.

The main account associated with your debit card is a RMB settlement account. When the status of the RMB settlement account is restricted, the debit card may not be used normally. Reasons for a RMB settlement account under restricted status include: your identity document has expired, or your account information is incomplete, and etc.

If you encounter problems when using your card, please contact our customer service hotline at (+86) 400 820 0006 or (+86 21) 5060 6440, or go to our bank's business outlets to inquire about the cause and resolve it. Please note that, the above dedicated customer service hotline will cease since 1 January 2025. The service hotline 95366 will continue to serve you. Please contact (+86 21) 95366 if you are calling from overseas, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR or Taiwan.

Sorry, HSBC China marketing program for new customer such like ‘HBCN Eastern Airline (CEA) program’ is not applicable to customers transferring from Citi China to HSBC China. 

For customers who have previously had an HSBC account that has been terminated by HSBC, to implement relevant risk control requirements upon the completion of the Transfer, they can only check their account balance and/or investment holdings. Meanwhile, we will review the customer relationship again and may approach the customers for additional information. Unless the customers can provide information/supporting documents sufficient to meet our risk control requirements, it is likely that we will terminate the customer relationship, including but not limited to closing all accounts of the customer in HSBC China.

If you want to keep your accounts with HSBC China, you may approach your relationship manager. After receiving your request of account retention, the Bank will review the reasons of terminating the relationship, and might ask for more information or supporting documents during the review. The Bank will come up with the final decision after the review, and will inform you the result in a timely manner.

If you used different identity documents for account opening at HSBC China and Citi China, please contact Citi China as soon as possible to update your personal information, to avoid any adverse impact on the use of your account(s) after the Transfer (applicable before the Closing Date). After the Closing Date, visit a nearby HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) to update your personal information.

Please refer to the following HSBC-Citi product mapping table to search for the product codes and product names in HSBC China corresponding to former Citi products.

HSBC Bank China (The bank) follows regulatory requirements and its internal policies in managing personal foreign exchange affairs, implementing distinct management models for various transaction types such as currency exchange, cross-border payments, cash deposits and withdrawals, and domestic and international fund transfers. Personal foreign exchange transactions must be backed by genuine and legitimate purposes, adhering to the principle of "real need and self-use." The bank reserves the right to conduct necessary verifications to ensure the transactions are real and compliant, supporting individuals' genuine and reasonable use of foreign currencies. The bank retains the rights to exercise enhanced measures to scrutinize and review foreign exchange or other business that is/are questionable. It is at the disposal of the bank to determine the document sorts to be reviewed, review forms and review focuses and so on to ensure the compliance of transactions. For those seeking further information, you can consult the "Personal Foreign Exchange Service Handbook" within HSBC's online 'Forex Toolkit' on our official website, or visit any of our branch/sub-branch premises for precise for precise details on the requirements and regulations governing personal foreign exchange services.

For refunds that were remitted from your original Citi China account before the Closing Date but returned after the Closing Date, or remittances that Citi China has received but has not yet paid out to your original Citi China account as of the Closing Date, Citi China will transfer it to HSBC China, which will then be paid to your account in HSBC China. However, personal cross-border RMB-related remittances will be directly returned by Citi China. Please be sure to make proper arrangements for remittance before the Closing Date.

For any remittance received by Citi China after the Closing Date, as your Citi China account will have been closed, Citi China will directly return the remittance to the remitter upon receipt. Please be sure to contact the remitter before the Closing Date to update your receiving account information.

HSBC China will automatically open an FCY settlement account for you to take over the transferred FCY deposit and investment products. And if you only have an FCY settlement account with HSBC China but hold Citi China CNY deposit and investment products , HSBC China will also automatically open a CNY settlement account for you to take over the transferred CNY deposit and investment products.

If you hold a Citi China debit card, HSBC China will pre-open a debit card for you to take over your banking services. Since you have not confirmed a delivery address for your physical card, we will generate a debit card number for you, but not send the physical card automatically. The card number can only be bind to use third-party payment services, such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, JD Pay and other online third-party payment platform. If you need a physical card, you can apply for it through mobile banking. We will then send the debit card and an initial password letter to your specified mailing address.

The service starting date for the newly issued debit card due to the business transfer is tentatively set as June 11, 2024. The debit card cannot be used before this date. Customers who have confirmed the card delivery address will receive a debit card and a debit card password letter respectively. Please keep your debit card, password letter and the "Guide of Debit Card Enabling" that comes with the card properly. After the service starting date (tentatively scheduled for June 11, 2024), you can use your debit card after completing its setup following instructions in the "Guide of Debit Card Enabling".

Beginning on the service starting date (tentatively scheduled for June 11, 2024), if you can already check your debit card number through mobile banking, you can directly click "Apply for Physical Card", complete the application according to the instructions of mobile banking, and obtain your debit card.

If you cannot query your debit card number through mobile banking, please visit a nearby HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) to apply.

Before the service starting date (tentatively scheduled for June11, 2024), HSBC China debit cards will only be sent to the mailing address (statement address) held by Citi China as of April 26, 2024. You can check the address information through your Citi China paper statement or electronic statement from mobile banking/online banking, and confirm whether to use this address to receive the card during online identity verification.

If you have confirmed that you have updated or need to update your mailing address in Citi China after April 26, 2024, please select 'No' on the address confirmation page in online identity verification and continue to complete the online identity verification process. HSBC China will not mail you a physical card. You can update your mailing address and apply for a physical card online through HSBC China Mobile Banking since the service starting date,or visit a nearby HSBC China branch (personal banking service branch) in person to apply.

After your investment product holdings have been transferred to HSBC, you can log in to your HSBC Personal Online Banking (once logged in, click My Investment, then click My Investment Portfolios to enter the page of My Holdings. From there, click on Transaction History, then Citi Transaction History). Or you can contact your relationship manager to inquire about your transaction history within five years from the Closing Date of your transferred products, including subscription, redemption, dividend and other record.

ID expiry may result in your Citi China account being blocked, therefore some customers may not be transferred to HSBC China.

For customers who are successfully transferred to HSBC China, if you have not completed identity verification or your ID has expired, it will not affect the transfer of your Citi China products, but we cannot accept your instruction before you complete identity verification. ID expired customers can redeem the transferred product, but you won’t be able to subscribe or switch any investment products. So We strongly recommend completing the identity verification process and updating your expired ID as soon as possible.

HSBC China will open accounts for you based on your information held by Citi China; and in common scenario, you will be able to use your HSBC China accounts and other banking services normally after identity verification completion. However, even if you have completed identity verification process, if your information held by Citi China is incomplete or under certain special circumstances, to fulfil regulatory or HSBC China’s account security requirements, your HSBC China’s account may be restricted after the Closing Date; and we may need to obtain more information relevant to your account, such as, your occupation, employer, position, source of wealth, etc. We will contact you directly if necessary. To ensure you receive relevant information promptly, please make sure your telephone number and correspondent address held by Citi China are accurate and valid; and pay close attention to SMS messages and letters in relation to this Transfer. HSBC will restore the normal function of your account after you provide the required information or document and meet the relevant laws and regulations and our internal policy requirements.

You can find information about your products, including but not limited to product performance, on HSBC China's official website or at your online banking and mobile banking.

Currently HSBC Global Private Banking has set up customer service teams and dedicated customer meeting areas to provide preferential services locally in 6 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou. For other cities (including Nanjing, Tianjin, Dalian, Chongqing, etc.), comprehensive, personalized and professional wealth management services could be provided remotely by Global Private Banking Relationship Managers, as the responsible person and contact point. Customer can also use to counter services with priority when coming into any of the branches with retail services.

In accordance to the requirements in Regulations on Common Reporting Standards (CRS), financial institution must well carry out CRS due diligence. Therefore, information regarding you and any reportable account(s) may be provided to China State Administration of Taxation and exchanged with tax authorities of another country or countries or region(s) in which you may be tax resident pursuant to intergovernmental agreements to exchange financial account information.

To comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), HSBC China may share your details, where applicable, within HSBC Group and only the IRS of the United States of America or third parties appointed by the Congress of the United States for the purpose of FATCA.

Currently, HSBC China does not provide investment products to Canadian residents (including Canadian Maple Leaf Card holders, or natural persons with permanent residential addresses, residential addresses, and mailing addresses in Canada). As some Citi China customers who are Canadian residents already hold relevant investment products, HSBC China will only accept product redemptions from these customers after the Transfer. You may check with your HSBC relationship manager for redemption process details after the service starting date (tentatively scheduled for June 11, 2024).

For QDII Bond and QDII Structured Note that transferred from Citi China, HSBC China will handle redemption, coupon payment, maturity termination and other services as stipulated in the contract. Depending on market conditions, HSBC China may subsequently issue new QDII Bond and QDII Structured Note. If you meet the purchase requirements set by HSBC China for these products at that time, you can subscribe normally. Please stay tuned.

You can redeem your QDII Mutual Fund, local unit trust, Hong Kong mutual recognition funds and asset management plans that you have transferred from Citi China. Whether new subscriptions can be accepted is subject to the list of products actually sold by HSBC China at that time. For the products on the actual sales list of HSBC China at that time, if you meet the purchase requirements set by HSBC China for these products, you can make a new subscription.

If you were former clients of Citi China in Guiyang and have been transferred to Chengdu, the relationship manager of Chengdu in HSBC China will provide relevant remote services for you in the future, and you can conduct most relevant account operations through digital channels. HSBC China does not have any branch in Guiyang, therefore, so for certain businesses (such as cash service, part of wealth management services, etc.) which must be handled at branch, clients need to physically visit Chengdu or other cities where HSBC China has a branch.

HSBC Changsha provides personal banking business, but mainly in Go-Digital model, that is, there is no local Relationship Manager, customer relations are handled by relationship managers in other cities, and the main account services and wealth management (including investment and insurance agency sale) and other non-cash services are provided to customers online or remotely. Operation staff located in HSBC Changsha business site provide limited business services that only could be processed on-site or at the counter, but do not provide services related to wealth management (including investment, insurance agent sale and the first Risk Profiling Questionnaire evaluation).

The HSBC China Debit Card supports the withdrawal of local currency at ATMs of UnionPay or consumption through UnionPay POS terminals overseas. At the same time, you can also use our bank's digital channel services overseas, such as registration and login for mobile banking and online banking.

If you already have a personal account(s) with HSBC China, your relevant products held at or purchased through Citi China will be transferred to such existing account(s) or any additional RMB / foreign currency accounts we will open for you, for which, you do not need to visit our branch unless you are notified otherwise.

You may need to complete identity verification in order to ensure your account security before making the full use of such accounts. Please make sure to check the Transfer Preparation Notification we recently sent out or go to the Online Identity Verification page on our website for details of the identity verification process.

We will provide at least HSBC Premier Elite Account services to Citigold® Private Client customers and will invite the customers to upgrade to Global Private Banking as appropriate, both of which can provide you customized banking services with high quality to meet your banking needs. For customers who become HSBC China Premier Elite, we will provide Premier Elite account services with monthly service fee waived from the day after the delivery date till 31 October 2024. After 31 October 2024, we will re-match your account service type based on your total relationship balance and the requirement at that time.

With respect to investment product tariff, if you want to redeem the products transferred from Citi China, the fee rates are similar (except for a few differences as specified below). However, the fee rates of new subscription, switching and Regular Saving Plan should be subject to HSBC China's fee arrangement.

You may refer to the Tariff of Accounts and Services for Wealth and Personal Banking Business (PDF , 2.44MB) to check the complete fee standards for products/services in HSBC China.

* The actual service channel for redemption of QDII Bond and QDII Structured Note shall be determined when actual transaction occurs and may be different from Citi China's current channel.

* New subscription and switching application should be subject to the on-sale product list of HSBC China.

* Given the different system handling of decimal part of QDII Investment Plan Unit between Citi China and HSBC China, the QDII Investment Plan Unit transferred to HSBC China will be made adjustment of rounding numbers. The transferred Unit will be subject to the display in HSBC China's system.

After the Transfer, you may check your holdings of the transferred investment products from Citi China, or redeem your investment holdings within the redemption time on HSBC China's Mobile APP (with a few possible exceptions to be elaborated in later communication letters to be sent by HSBC China).  Other transaction types on HSBC China's Mobile APP including subscription and switching are subject to the availability of specific products on the mobile banking channel at HSBC China. Please also note that HSBC China's Mobile APP does not process redemption, subscription or switching of investment by joint accounts.

We have summarized below by product types the potential changes to your deposit products. For the avoidance of doubts, these changes will not take effect until the relevant products have been taken over by HSBC China. Details are listed below.

(1) Demand Deposit: Your demand deposit will be entitled to the corresponding HSBC China personal demand deposit interest rate once transferred to HSBC China.

(2) Time Deposit: For any of your time deposit with a standing automatic renewal instruction, except for the scenarios mentioned below, from the renewal execution date, it will be entitled to HSBC China personal time deposit board rate for the corresponding terms. For time deposits in certain currencies (Swiss Francs or New Zealand Dollar) and/or certain terms (2 weeks or 2 months), the automatic renewal instruction, if any, will expire immediately upon the transfer of such products to HSBC China, and the principal and interest at maturity will be transferred to the corresponding current account. If the maturity date or renewal execution date of your time deposits is a national holiday or weekend, the maturity date or renewal execution date of such products will be the next working day.

(3) Large-Denomination Certificate of Deposit: If the maturity date of your large-denomination certificates of deposit is a national holiday or weekend, the maturity date of such products will be the next working day.

(4) Foreign Currency Notes: The foreign currency deposit(s) held in your Citi China foreign currency notes account, including Pound, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Singapore dollar, New Zealand dollar and Swiss Franc, will be transferred to your foreign currency exchange account of the same currency at HSBC China in full since the date of transfer to HSBC China. If you need any services involving foreign currency notes, you may contact the relevant local branch of HSBC China in advance to inquire about the available foreign currencies.

If any of your Citi China products are held through a joint account at Citi China and you do not hold a joint account under the same names at HSBC China, we will open a joint account for you to take over such products and execute your instructions based on the signing rules (either/both to sign) you set up at Citi China. You can use this joint account after all account holders have completed identity verification.

If you already hold a same-name joint account at HSBC China, the relevant Citi China products will be transferred to your existing HSBC China joint account and the signing rules you set up for such HSBC China joint account will remain unchanged.