Mox Bank: Standard Chartered's virtual bank in Hong Kong

The account is held by Mox Bank Limited, a company incorporated in Hong Kong, which describes itself as a "licensed bank in Hong Kong". It appears among the licensed banks incorporated in Hong Kong in the HKMA list as at 31 December 2025. The virtual bank licence was granted in March 2019 to SC Digital Solutions Limited, an entity linked to Standard Chartered; that name is kept as an alias.

The status is verified against the list of authorized institutions published in the appendix to the HKMA annual report, as at 31 December 2025; the HKMA online register could not be consulted directly. The current shareholding structure has not been verified against a primary source.

Mox requires a Hong Kong identity card, either permanent or non-permanent resident, a valid residential and postal address in Hong Kong, and the age of majority. The account-opening page adds a Hong Kong mobile number. An expatriate resident holding a non-permanent identity card is therefore eligible.

The FAQ intended for visitors states that you must be physically present in Hong Kong throughout the account-opening process, and that the information is intended for distribution in Hong Kong.

The conditions applying to an account holder who leaves Hong Kong are not documented.

When the first licences were granted in 2019, the HKMA presented virtual banks as targeting mainly the general public and small and medium-sized enterprises in Hong Kong. They are not designed as offshore banks for non-residents: unless a specific route applies, access requires Hong Kong resident status.

Mox offers a Hong Kong dollar account opened from the app, a Mox card with a notification for every transaction, and local transfers.

The FAQ consulted does not specify the currencies that can be held or the fees; they are not reproduced here.

Mox Bank Limited states that it is a member of the Hong Kong Deposit Protection Scheme; eligible deposits are protected up to up to HK$800,000¹ per depositor.

The limit applies bank by bank: deposits spread across several Hong Kong virtual banks each benefit from their own limit, whereas several accounts opened with the same bank are added together. According to the HKMA, the increase in the limit is part of a first phase of Deposit Protection Scheme reforms that came into effect on 1 October 2024.

• Physical presence in Hong Kong during account opening.
• Foreign exchange and overseas withdrawal fees on the card, not documented here.
• What happens to the account after you leave Hong Kong.
• Reporting obligations linked to your tax residence: a French tax resident must declare every year the accounts opened, held, used or closed outside France, including those with online banks and payment wallets; other countries impose comparable obligations.
• The tax residence self-certification requested at account opening: depending on the automatic exchange of information commitments of the bank's country, the account balances and income may be reported to the tax authority of your country of residence.