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ARTICLE · 14 NOVEMBER 2024

HKMA Issues Cooling-Off Period Requirements For Unsecured Consumer Credit Products

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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has further enhanced consumer protection by issuing a circular prescribing a 7-day cooling-off period for customers to reconsider credit products.

Hong KongConsumer Protection
Sara Or
Sara Or
Michelle Ng
Michelle Ng
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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has further enhanced consumer protection by issuing a circular prescribing a 7-day cooling-off period for customers to reconsider credit products.

Retail banks (including digital banks1) offering unsecured consumer credit products to individual customers are required to comply with the requirements set out in the circular as soon as practicable – and in any case no later than the end of June 2025.2

The cooling-off period arrangement aims to promote responsible borrowing while reducing the risk of impulsive and excessive borrowing by giving individual customers a reasonable time period to carefully reconsider their financial obligations and assess their repayment capacity after entering into a credit agreement.

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