HKMA Fines WeChat Pay Hong Kong HK$875,000 for AML and CTF Compliance Failures

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority imposed a pecuniary penalty of HK$875,000 on WeChat Pay Hong Kong Limited on 30 August 2024 for contravening the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance. The enforcement action related to failures in customer due diligence controls within the company's licensed stored value facility operations and covered conduct spanning from 25 August 2016 to 24 October 2021.

WeChat Pay Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, operates the Hong Kong version of the WeChat Pay mobile payment platform under a stored value facility licence granted by the HKMA.

SELF-REPORT AND HKMA INVESTIGATION

The HKMA confirmed that the enforcement action followed a voluntary self-report made by WeChat Pay Hong Kong to the regulator. Upon receiving the disclosure, the authority conducted a further investigation into the company's AML and CTF systems of control, which identified deficiencies in CDD reviews upon trigger events and in enhanced due diligence for high-risk situations, which formed the basis of the penalty.

Hong Kong's stored value facility licensing regime began in November 2015 under the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance.

The HKMA did not publicly disclose the precise weighting it assigned to the self-referral in reaching the HK$875,000 figure.