Hong Kong Ex-Lawmaker Rejects HSBC Account Freeze Explanation

(Bloomberg) -- Former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui rejected an explanation from HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn over the bank’s reason to freeze his account after he fled the city for self-exile in the U.K.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, which included a partial photo of the letter, Hui said that HSBC “failed to provide the legal basis” for freezing his accounts and those of his family members and didn’t explain why his family was also “collectively punished.”

Hui, a pro-democracy advocate, said that Quinn wrote in a personal email that the bank had no choice in blocking his accounts after a demand from the police. An HSBC spokeswoman declined to comment on specific accounts.

The bank’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell as much as 3.1% on Monday. HSBC’s move to freeze Hui’s account as well as that of a church last year prompted anger and accusations that the closures were acts of political retaliation.

The London-based bank has been walking a tightrope as it struggles to avoid getting caught in the complicated geopolitics of the former British colony, where pro-democracy politicians have been disqualified, charged, arrested and fled into exile amid a China-backed crackdown.

Hui also called for members of the parliament in the U.K. to send letters to question the bank as well as “corresponding international sanctions to be imposed upon HSBC.”