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QUESTIONNAIRE

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Company Information

Questions

1. Initial deposit: HKD $50,000.
2. Account opening fee: HKD $1,000.
3. Annual Fee: HKD $800.
4. If the average monthly balance is less than HKD $100,000, there will be a HKD $500 monthly fee

1. The Certification of Incorporation of companies with common directors or shareholders
2. The latest 3 months bank statement of companies with common directors or shareholders
3. if there are no common directors or shareholders, please provide the employment contract or any documents to proof the relationship
4. Invoice and contract
5. Name of supplier and buyer (one to two companies)
6. Website
7. Business plan

A subsidiary company is a company that is owned by other companies. The materials for opening a bank account in Hong Kong for a subsidiary is as follow:

1. A board minute of the parent company authorizing the incorporation of the subsidiary, and authorizing its directors / a director to sign for and on behalf of the subsidiary;
2. An organizational chart showing the relationship between the subsidiary, the parent company, and the shareholders of the parent company;
3. A copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the parent company, certified by the directors;
4. An Apostile / the original of the Certificate of Incorporation of the parent company;
5. The certificate of Incumbency of the parent company;
6. A bank reference letter for the parent company;
7. The director’s declarations for the subsidiary and the parent company, accompanied by Hong Kong CPA letters;
8. Identity proofs and residential addresses proofs:
   1. If the parent company is a private company, identity proofs and residential addresses proofs of the majority shareholders of the parent company;
   2. If the parent company is a public company, its web site and stock symbol.
9. If the document is not in English, it must be translated and certified by the translator;
10. If the original documents can not be provided, the notarized photocopies of the documents are acceptable.
11. Bank account opening documents for the subsidiary

HSBC has introduced a new business account called “HSBC Business Direct” that requires no monthly fee and minimum account balance. Compared with the existing business account BusinessVantage, the HSBC Business Direct has the following features:

• No monthly fee;
• No monthly minimum balance;
• Counter service fees: $0 if there are less than 7 counter transactions per month, $75 if there are 7 to 12 transactions per month , and $10 per additional transaction.

Beside introducing the new Business Direct service, HSBC has also revised the fees of the existing BusinessVantage:

• If the average balance of 3 months is less than HKD $100,000, there is a service fee of HKD $150 per month;
• if the average balance is between HKD $100,000 and HKD $1million, the monthly fee is HKD $75;
• there is no monthly fee if the balance is above HKD $1million;
• unlimited free counter service

The service pricings are effective starting this Monday (Oct 27, 2008). For more information, please visit HSBC’s web site: http://www.commercial.hsbc.com.hk/1/2/commercial/accounts/businessdirect/

1. Call +852 2748 8238
2. Select your language. Press “2″ for English
3. Press “3″ to talk to an operator
4. Talk to the operator:
   • Operator: “What can I help you?”
   • You: “I want to make an appointment to open a business bank account”
   • Operator: “Where do you want to open the account?”
   • You: “Causeway Bay Plaza Phase 2″
   • Operator: “What time do you want to visit the office?”
   • You: provide the appointment time. It should be between 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday
   • Operator: “What is the entity your business?”
   • You: “Hong Kong limited company”
   • Operator: “Do you have the number of the Certificate of Incorporation?”
   • You: provide the CI number. If you don’t have one, just say “I don’t have it.”.
5. Occasionally the operators are busy. You could leave your phone number, even an overseas phone number, and they would call you later.
6. After making the appointment, the operator would give you an appointment number. Copy it down and present it to the receptionist when you arrive the office.

Very Important: If the company has two or more than two directors, at least two of them must be present at the bank interview.

Once you arrive the HSBC SME Centre, you should:

• inform the receptionist of your arrival
• give him the name of your company

then you would wait for the bank manager to meet you. When the manager is available, he would lead you to his office, and ask you for a copy of the incorporation documents

• Notice the stack of documents fastened by a binder clip in your package that have the words “CERTIFIED TRUE COPY” on them. Give the manager the documents.
• If you could not find the documents, you should call us, and we would immediately issue another set of certified documents to you for the purpose of account application.

Afterward, the manager would ask for your identification documents, residential proof, and business proof. He would also ask you a few questions and enter the information into the computer. At the end of the interview, he would print out some forms and ask you to sign it. After you sign the forms, the manager would submit the information to another centralized service centre for approval. If your application fulfills all the requirements, your account would be approved and activated immediately

If your application is approved, the manager would give you a banking package. Otherwise he may also give you the package without an activated account. If certain documents were missing, you could mail the manager the missing documents later after the meeting, and he would re-submit the application to the service centre for reconsideration.

The HSBC Causeway Bay SME Centre (green balloon on the map) is located on the 23rd floor of the Causeway Bay Plaza Two. It takes about ten minutes to walk from our office (red balloon) to the SME Centre, or about 3 minutes from the Causeway Bay MTR station exit C (purple balloon).

The Causeway Bay Plaza Two has two sections: a commercial building and a shopping mall. The SME centre is located in the commercial building, not in the shopping mall. The entrance of the building is on the Percival Street. The service branch, where the tellers and ATM machines are located, is in the shopping mall. Be sure you enter the commercial building first. After the account application is approved, you then come down and use the ATM at the branch.

The address and travel direction of the HSBC SME Centre are shown here:

View Larger Map

The following instruction is written for the bank account application at the HSBC Causeway Bay Plaza 2 SME Centre.

If you can provide sufficient residential proof and business proof, the bank will approve the application of the business bank account for your new company:

1. The bank account and ATM card become operational immediately.
2. The online e-banking account becomes operational in 10 days to 2 weeks

The bank representative would give you a package. The items that require your immediate attention are the ATM card envelope, and the sealed ATM card password envelope.

1. When you are in front of the bank representative
   1. unseal the ATM card envelope
   2. sign at the back of the ATM card
   3. sign a paper and acknowledge that you have received the ATM card
   4. put the card in your wallet
2. Put the package in your briefcase or in a bag

After that you leave the SME centre and go down stair to the ground floor. A HSBC branch is located in the same building but on the second floor of the plaza:

1. Make a right turn after you leave the lobby of the building
2. Locate the escalator at the corner of the building
3. Use the escalator to move to the second floor

You will find the HSBC branch right in front of you. Enter the branch and you will notice:

1. A group of ATMs on your right hand side
2. A group of automatic cash and cheque deposit machines on your left hand side

You need to change the PIN of your ATM card, so

1. Line up to use the ATM
2. Unseal the envelope that contains the password of the card
3. Come up with a new password

When it is your turn to use the ATM

1. Insert the card into the machine
2. Enter the password as indicated on the envelope
3. Select the language as requested by the machine
4. Locate “Other Services”, which is on the lower right hand side of the screen, and press the button next to it (not on the screen, this is no touch-screen)
5. Locate “Change PIN”, which is on the left hand side of the screen, and press the button next to it
6. Enter the new password
7. The machine will ask you to confirm the new password by re-entering the new password
8. After the password is successfully changed, take the card by pressing the red cancel button
9. Remember to pick up the card (This is important!)

So after you have successfully changed the password, you can go home. If you want to deposit cash into the account, follow the instruction here:

1. Remember the automatic deposit machine on your left hand side when you entered the branch? Now they are at your back.
2. Line up to use the deposit machine
3. Insert card
4. The machine will not ask you for password. It will eject the card after finishing reading the card
5. Pick up the ATM card after the machine ejects it
6. Insert money notes into the machine. You can see a flashing light that shows you the slot that accepts money notes
7. After you are done, print the receipt. That is.

Sometime the machine does not accept certain notes, probably because there are wrinkles on them, or they are fake. You can retry the automatic deposit by re-inserting the card and re-start the whole process again. Or you can deposit the money by going to the human teller counters.

Many people incorporate a Hong Kong company because they want to open a bank account in Hong Kong. Unlike the governments of many other countries, the Hong Kong government does not impose restriction on the import and export of foreign currency. Money can flow freely into and out of Hong Kong. This makes Hong Kong an ideal place for capital to stay before entering into China.

However, the absence of currency restriction also makes Hong Kong potentially a good place for criminal activities. Therefore, in order to prevent their services from being abused, all banks in Hong Kong impose strict requirements on opening a bank account.

So before you come to Hong Kong to open a bank account, you should be aware of the following things:

1. You should bring with you:
   • your personal identification documents, such as passport or identification card;
   • business proof, such as invoices of your existing business, business plan, contracts, or even copies of your business’ web pages;
   • residential address proof of the directors and shareholders, such as utilities bills that have their names and addresses.
2. Certified true copies of various documents, such as the Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration. Your company kit should come with them.
3. A HKD $5,000 or USD $1,000 cheque for initial deposit.

For more information, please download and read HSBC Business Account Opening Instruction. Note that different banks have different requirements. While HSBC generally does not require a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, some banks do. The safest thing to do is to bring the whole company kit there to avoid any surprises.

Contact us if you have more questions.