PayMe glitch smacks HSBC

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation apologized for a technical glitch on its digital wallet PayMe which caused a temporary service halt yesterday.

When users opened the mobile application, the screen showed that the quick transfer service was temporarily unavailable, with the account balance displayed as zero.

An HSBC spokesperson said the glitch was due to a system failure, and that some users had intermittent connection problems when logging in or using PayMe. It added that the digital payment service returned to normal service at about 3.30pm.

HSBC said in May that the number of users of the e-payment platform exceeded two million, and that the number of PayMe users conducting transactions with merchants had also increased significantly.

In addition to being used for personto- person payments, HSBC launched a person-to-business payment solution last March that offered payment collection for thousands of merchants.

The bank has announced that the volume of P2M transactions processed through PayMe for business in the third quarter of this year had exceeded full-year transaction volume for 2019.

With regard to the amount of P2P transactions, PayMe has a market share of 70 percent, said HSBC.

The digital wallet has also been adopted by logistics services provider SF Express (Hong Kong), The Standard reported earlier. The wallet allows users to pay couriers at 120 SF Express HK network points across the city.

Users will need to generate a payment QR code on their mobile application and present it at checkout. Courier staff will then scan the QR code to complete the payment. The same process will apply for door to door deliveries.

In October, the PayMe system reported another technical issue, when users could not transfer money via the application and were informed that the quick transfer function was temporarily unavailable.

The PayMe credit card transaction processing system also malfunctioned in June 2018, causing users to be charged twice for their transactions.

The bank said it had canceled the repeated transactions and completed the refunds within a few days.