(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's banking regulator told finance executives in recent weeks that it's lobbying the government to shorten the strict hotel quarantine placed on incoming travelers as it seeks to prop up confidence in the city's status as a financial hub.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority told a group of banks that it will start engaging with the government to reduce the hotel quarantine to 7 days from 14 days, followed by another week of isolation from home, said people familiar with the talks, asking not to be identified because the meetings were private. HKMA also urged the banking community to stay committed to Hong Kong, one of the people said.
Shortening quarantine times for travelers could go some way to alleviate people's concerns, particularly those of expatriates, about Hong Kong's livability. The city's ranking in Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking tumbled to second to last in February, largely because of its strict travel restrictions.
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The city has closed schools and bars, banned flights from countries including the U.K. and the U.S. and is planning a mass testing that may be coupled with a citywide lockdown, local media reported on Tuesday. Still, some measures are being eased, including a shortening of the hotel quarantine from 21 days earlier this year.
Even the market regulator has warned the Chinese territory's status as a financial center is at risk amid a brain drain as stringent policies have left many expatriates unable to see their families and made business travel next to impossible.
Still, bankers who participated in the meetings with the city's de facto central bank were skeptical over what influence it could have on the government, which is now ceding more of its anti-virus efforts to Chinese mainland officials. The city is now poised to impose a lockdown, something that had previously been dismissed by top officials.
The HKMA will relay the suggestions of banks on the government measures to the relevant authorities for consideration if they are shared with the regulator, a spokesperson said in response to a Bloomberg News request for comment. The regulator declined to comment on the details.
HKMA also sought to reassure banking executives that the city wouldn't place staff in new isolation facilities that are being built, provided they have adequate housing for self-isolation, the people said. The regulator said it's making an all-out effort to address concerns of the financial community, and acknowledged that banking staff are leaving the city, the people said.
A dozen senior bankers at Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have moved out of the city recently, people familiar said earlier.
After two years of limited outbreaks, Hong Kong is facing its toughest challenge of the pandemic, with the highly transmissible omicron variant testing its zero-tolerance, high intensity approach to keeping Covid out. New cases have ballooned from a few hundred a day to more than 30,000 a day.
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