Complaints Against Debt Collection Agents Employed by Authorized Institutions

55th Floor, Two International Finance Centre, 香 港 中 環 金 融 街 8 號 國 際 金 融 中 心 2 期 55 樓 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong 網 址：www.hkma.gov.hk Website: www.hkma.gov.hk Our Ref: B1/1C B9/67C 11 March 2025 The Chief Executive All Authorized Institutions Dear Sir/Madam, Complaints Against Debt Collection Agents Employed by Authorized Institutions I write to inform you of the results of the industry survey on complaints against debt collection agents (DCAs) employed by authorized institutions (AIs) for the second half of 2024. During the reporting period, 33 AIs used the services of DCAs and assigned 548,531 accounts to 21 DCAs, up from 436,770 accounts assigned to 19 DCAs in the first half of 2024. A total of 34 complaints against 7 DCAs were received by 12 AIs (compared with 28 complaints against 8 DCAs received by 11 AIs in H1 2024). The average incidence of complaints per 1,000 accounts assigned was 0.06 in H2 2024, same as the level in H1 2024. 5 complaints were lodged by unrelated third parties in H2 2024. Please see Annex for details. No instance of a breach of the Code of Banking Practice was reported in H2 2024. As the number of accounts assigned to DCAs had increased, AIs are reminded of the need to maintain proper system and control for monitoring the activities of their DCAs vigilantly to ensure compliance with the relevant requirements and fair treatment of customers. Yours faithfully, Alan Au Executive Director (Banking Conduct) Encl.

• 2 - c.c. The Chairperson, Hong Kong Association of Banks The Chairperson, The DTC Association Secretary, Code of Banking Practice Committee (Attn: Ms Ida Yeung – HKAB) Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Attn: Mr Timothy Wong)

Annex Survey on DCA complaints received by AIs – H2/2024 Table 1: Number of AIs using DCA services H2/2024 H1/2024 H2/2023 H1/2023 H2/2022 AIs receiving DCA complaints 12 11 6 4 10 AIs receiving no DCA complaints 21 22 27 28 22 Total 33 32 32 Table 2: Number of DCAs employed by AIs H2/2024 H1/2024 H2/2023 H1/2023 H2/2022 AIs employing 1 – 5 DCAs 30 31 31 30 30 AIs employing 6 – 10 DCAs 3 2 AIs employing 11 – 15 DCAs 0 Total 33 32 32 Table 3: Incidence of DCA complaints H2/2024 H1/2024 H2/2023 H1/2023 H2/2022 DCA complaints received (A) 34 28 22 10 19 Accounts assigned (B) 548,531 436,770 458,136 414,755 433,323 Incidence of complaints per 1,000 accounts (C) = (A) / (B) x 1,000 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.02 0.04 Table 4: Status of complainants H2/2024 H1/2024 H2/2023 H1/2023 H2/2022 Debtors 27 25 21 10 15 Referees 0 Family members/friends 2 0 1 Unrelated third parties 5 3 1 0 3 Total 34 28 22 10 19