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Image source,EPA
Carrie Lam said she could only use cash because she didn’t have a bank account.
Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam said that due to US sanctions, as Hong Kong CEO, she does not have a bank account and can only use cash for income and expenses. Why can’t Chinese banks open an account for Lam Cheng?
Carrie Lam said in a television interview recently that because U.S. sanctions against her prevented her from having a bank account, she had to keep her cash wages at home, so her family was “a lot of money in cash”.
Due to Hong Kong’s implementation of the National Security Law, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on senior officials responsible for Hong Kong affairs in Hong Kong and mainland China, including Carrie Lam.
In August this year, the United States imposed sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials, including Carrie Lam, in response to China’s national security law on Hong Kong.
The newspaper publicly reported that the salary of the Hong Kong CEO is one of the highest among the leaders of countries and regions in the world.
Carrie Lam’s comments sparked heated discussions on social media.
High CEO salary
As Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam’s annual salary is approximately HK $ 5.2 million and her monthly salary is approximately HK $ 400,000.
Carrie Lam said in a television interview with a local English-language Hong Kong International Finance and Economics (HKIBC) channel on Friday (27) that she pays cash every day.
Carrie Lam told HKIBC that sitting across from you is the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region who does not have a bank account.
Carrie Lam also said that because she does not have a bank account, the government can only pay her salary in cash.
At the same time, she added that she feels “very honored” to be “unfairly sanctioned” by the US government.
National security law controversy
Image source,REUTERS / HKISD
Members of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region National Security Committee who have been placed on the sanctions list by the United States include Luo Huining (second left front), Carrie Lam (center front), Zheng Ruohua (right front first), Chen Guoji (rear right first) and Deng Bingqiang (rear right third).
In July this year, China began implementing the controversial National Security Law in Hong Kong. Critics say the law threatens freedom of speech and autonomy in Hong Kong.
The implementation of the National Security Law has made it easier for the government to punish protesters, and people are concerned that it may pose a threat to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
For this reason, the United States decided in August to impose economic sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and China Office officials, including freezing and confiscating their assets in the United States.
After the United States announced sanctions against 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials, these officials successively criticized the actions of the United States, saying that they have no assets in the United States and will not travel to the United States, so they will not be affected.
Why are Chinese banks defenseless?
Image source,Reuters
All banks doing international business should consider the impact that violations of US financial sanctions can have on their international business.
SWIFT, a financial information transmission system between financial institutions that controls more than 80% of the world’s cross-border payments, is seen as a cross-border financial system controlled by the US dollar and a powerful tool for the US to impose financial sanctions on global scale.
SWIFT is a cooperative organization jointly owned by global banks. Its board of directors does not exceed 25 people and each country does not exceed 2 representatives of two banks, such as Citibank and JP Morgan Chase in the United States, Deutsche Bank in Germany and France. Bank of France and Pakistan, Lloyds Bank of the United Kingdom and Bank of China are among the 25 seats above, representing the interests of SWIFT users in their respective countries.
As of December 2019, SWIFT data shows that the US dollar represents 42.2% of world trade (almost equal to the sum of the euro, the British pound and the yen).
The absolute dominance of the US dollar has become a powerful tool for the United States to implement financial sanctions. As long as the United States is determined to sanction a country or institution, it can directly cut the connection between the financial institution (or its corresponding US dollar correspondent bank) and the US dollar cross-border settlement system (CHIPS), making transactions impossible related to US dollars.
Therefore, if the United States announces sanctions against a certain person or institution, almost all the international banks in the world must verify whether they have business dealings with the sanctioned persons.
All Chinese banks, large and small, must avoid that their international businesses are affected by their commercial relations with sanctioned persons, companies or institutions. Large-scale Chinese banks are not affected by international financial business and cannot violate US sanctions.
Banks in countries like Iran and North Korea are subject to US financial sanctions and their international business activities have been affected.
Earlier, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post also quoted Jeremy Paner, a former official with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, as saying that outsiders often underestimate the effectiveness of sanctions from And they believe they won’t be affected if they don’t have assets in the US.
