Mox cuts three banks from direct debit link

Virtual bank Mox will remove electronic direct debit authorization from Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Corporation, Hang Seng Bank (0011), and Dah Sing Bank starting tomorrow, said an email to customers.

The bank's latest list of eDDA-support banks will include Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), China CITIC Bank International, China Construction Bank (Asia), DBS Bank Hong Kong, Nanyang Commercial Bank and other banks.

Virtual bank ZhongAn Bank will be added to the list next Sunday.

This came after the virtual banks blamed traditional banks for high transaction fees.

Virtual banks said that although HSBC has made a slight concession, the transaction fee was still as high as 2 percent.

Some virtual banks said they are also considering removing HSBC from the eDDA function or reducing the transfer limit if no agreement is reached.

In other news, Richard Li Tzar-kai was part of a bid for a digital-banking permit in Singapore and, most recently, has teamed up with PayPal Holdings co-founder Peter Thiel to establish a US$595 million blank-check firm, Bridgetown Holdings, for acquiring one or more Southeast Asian companies, reported Bloomberg.

Bridgetown Holdings, which listed on the Nasdaq in October, seeks to make companies public by acquiring them.

Li and Thiel will first consider Southeast Asia's best-known companies, people familiar with their partnership said, asking not to be identified as they aren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.