free-lunch protocol: now that i have reduced equity exposure by half (taking off the trade that was hk shares, leaving on the table the wager that is short-fnv-put-strike-75 and long silver), i added a few dollops of paper gold to the at-risk
i figure it is better to have easier hedge-able gold and silver over the long workation that should be chinese new years than it is to leave hindquarter exposed on the hk share market
i made appointment w/ the bank to pick up newly-printed-and-still-warm paper money on the 9th, in time to stuff red coloured envelops, and to distribute soonest after return from chinese new year workation
re <<"mainland Chinese are withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars using up to 50 cards at a time.">>
... what a load of [choose adjective and noun] ... 50 cards entail 50 bank accounts, w/ only so many banks, with each card enabling withdraw of hkd 20,000, totalling hkd 1M - a bit of baggage, and for what conceivable purpose ?
possibilities -
- real estate downpayment? none starter
- carrying to anywhere? highly unlikely. bank transfers work at few clicks of the mouse button.
- buy stuff? possible, but why cash?
- gold bars and coins? really the only possible explanation, and even for gold, if in such amounts, require bank xfer, not cash
so, your fret w/r to hk atm withdraw is wasteful of time
(i) hk banking system is fabulous for xfer funds anywhere 24/6, so anyone wanting to move money can easily do so w/o resorting to atm cash withdraws
(ii) hk cash is fairly useless outside of hk, and can only really be swapped for other sorts of cash in some but not conveniently enough places around the world outside of se asia / china
(iii) large cash transactions at the receiving banks (europe, n.america, australia, japan) are frowned on, especially if in the lesser currencies such as hkd
(iv) so, if there are large atm withdraws, the money would be used for localised hk spending, and hardly anything else
(v) otherwise brought physically to wherever and swapped for whatever paper money or physical properties, then again, why bother such way
the truth that you even draw attention to a non-topic shows that you clue-in to all sorts of distractions meaning nothing at all.
on, and yes, large cash withdraws happen around chinese new year times, for giving 'red packet' lai see en.wikipedia.org money as thank you for folks who served us, and for unmarried kids as free-lunch scmp.com
... and, oh, btw, ~400B cash circulates in hk, and if 20B go in and out of atm per month, so what?
since i know you are not mathematical, do not appreciate history, and unlikely to doing research, i understand why your fretted over hk atm withdraws
scmp.com
Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year lai see tradition is big business with 400 million more banknotes in circulationWhile the digital era has seen many people go online to manage their financial transactions, whenever Lunar New Year approaches more Hong Kong people visit bank branches for one simple reason – to exchange new banknotes for lai see packets – to the tune of as much as HK$8 billion a year.
Lydia Yip Siu-ming, head of the currency and settlement division in the financial infrastructure department of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said the Lunar New Year would require about 300 million to 400 million more banknotes in circulation than usual to cope with increased business transactions and lai see distribution, which itself is valued at HK$8 billion.
About half are newly printed banknotes, which means the authority needed to print about 200 million banknotes for the Lunar New Year.
Currently there are 2 billion banknotes in circulation valued at HK$408 billion, up from HK$157 billion in 2006, with an annual growth rate of 10 per cent over the past 10 years, Yip said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
“Even after many people are using credit cards or other electronic methods to make payments, there are still many businesses such as supermarkets and restaurants that need to use banknotes for transactions. Tourists prepare cash to spend while lai see money also contributes to the biggest demand for banknotes every year,” she said.
It is a Chinese tradition that married people need to give lai see packets with new banknotes, usually HK$20, to children or unmarried young people, as “lucky money”.
Most Chinese companies will also give their employees a HK$100 lai see packet on the first day back at work after the Lunar New Year.
Traditionally, bank customers ask for newly printed banknotes for their lai see packets. Banks usually let customers exchange old notes for new banknotes about two weeks ahead of the Lunar New Year.
Many banks open earlier and close later to allow customers to exchange banknotes.
The HKMA also dispatches its own staff to monitor bank branches to make sure the exchange is as smooth as possible, Yip said
She said many customers, especially the elderly, insist on newly printed banknotes for their lai see packets as they follow the tradition that everything has to be brand new.
“However, this is not very environmentally friendly as it takes a lot of cotton and energy to make new banknotes,” she said.
That’s why the HKMA in 2006 launched “ying-san notes”, or “good as new notes”, which are used notes but still in a good enough condition for lai see. Banks in Hong Kong use machines to determine if banknotes are clean and good enough to use as lucky money.
This year, among all banknotes available for lai see, there are about 50 per cent that are ying-san notes while the rest are newly printed. This compares with only 20 per cent of ying-san notes when the scheme first launched in 2006.
“On average, it takes about one tonne of cotton for every 1 million banknotes. With about 50 per cent of lai see banknotes as ying-san notes, we print 175 million fewer new notes, so this saves about 175 tonnes of cotton, as well as ink and energy used for the printing, plus transportation costs,” Yip said.
She said the number of banknotes in circulation are affected by the distribution of lai see money. Last year, banknotes in circulation peaked at almost HK$400 billion in February during the Lunar New Year, up from about HK$360 billion in January. However, the number went down to about HK$370 billion in March.
“Every year it repeats the same cycle – parents or grandparents exchange banknotes at the banks to prepare lai see for the children. When the children use the lai see to buy toys, the shops deposit the banknotes in the bank and the money circulates back into the banking system,” she said.
On average, the larger the denomination of the lai see, such as HK$1,000 or HK$500 banknotes, the faster it returns to the banking system, meaning they remain in good condition longer and can be used for two to three years before needing to be destroyed and replaced by new notes.
The HK$100 and HK$20 banknotes, the most commonly seen denominations used for lai see, are usually circulated more frequently in retail transactions before being deposited in banks, so they usually only last 18 months on average before needing replacement.
Both the Bank of East Asia and Hang Seng Bank said customers prefer newly printed banknotes for lai see money, but would accept ying-san notes if they cannot get newly printed ones. A Hang Seng Bank spokesman said the HK$20 and HK$100 banknotes were the most popular while a Bank of East Asia spokesman said HK$50 banknotes were the most popular among its customers. |
