To combat criminal syndicates recruiting bank account holders to rent or sell their accounts for money laundering purposes, the Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) partnered with Alipay to disseminate anti-money laundering (AML) messages to Chinese Mainland users through the Alipay Mobile Application (App).

Starting from September 29, the Alipay App displays a pop-up message to Chinese Mainland users upon their arrival in Hong Kong, outlining the severe legal consequences of selling or renting bank accounts to money laundering syndicates. As of November, Alipay has disseminated over 280 000 pop-up messages.

On October 22, FIIB held an interim meeting with representatives from Ant Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and Alipay to review the progress of the alert message initiative. The parties also exchanged views on strengthening customer due diligence and leveraging technology to counter deepfake technology.

An interim meeting was held between FIIB officers and the representatives of ANT Bank Limited and Alipay on October 22.