Licensed money service operators in Hong Kong

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Licensed money service operators in Hong Kong

Sending money abroad or changing currency at a shop? In Hong Kong a remittance or money changing service needs a money service operator licence from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise. This page lists the 613 licensees on the Department’s published list and their 800 licensed premises: search by name, browse the premises by district, or open a licensee’s page to see all its addresses.

What a money service operator licence is

Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615), the Customs and Excise Department says, a person who wishes to operate a remittance and/or money changing service — a money service as the Ordinance defines it — is required to apply for a licence from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise. Operating a money service without a money service operator licence from the Commissioner is an offence, liable to a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for two years.

The Commissioner regulates money service operators — remittance agents and money changers — and supervises licensed operators’ compliance with the customer due diligence and record-keeping obligations and other licensing requirements, as well as combating unlicensed operation of money service. The amended Ordinance came into operation on 1 April 2023.

Each address on a licence has a type. According to the list’s data dictionary, specified premises are the particular premises used for operating money service; a licence may also give temporary premises and a correspondence address. This site lists specified and temporary premises on the district pages; a correspondence address is shown only on a company’s or a firm’s own page.

How to check a money service operator

1. Search for it on the Department’s Register of Licensees for MSOs.
2. Check that the shop you are using is one of the licensee’s specified premises, and compare the name and address with what you were given.

The open-data list is updated daily and this site copies it weekly, so the Department’s register is the authority. Details of the regime are on the Department’s page about the supervision of money service operators.

What is on the list

To protect privacy, this site never shows the name of a natural person. Companies, firms and partnerships are listed under their names and a sole proprietor under the trading name only. A licensee whose name is a person’s is counted but not named, and so is one whose name seems to contain a person’s full name until it has been reviewed. A correspondence address is shown only for a company or a firm, and is never placed on the map.

Licensed money service operators by district

An entry belongs to the district its address is in: the point the CSDI portal’s geotagged copy of the list gives for the premises, inside the Home Affairs Department’s district boundary; an entry without a point is placed from its address. Each district page lists every entry there.

💡 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Hong Kong business registers · the Customs and Excise Department’s Register of Licensees for MSOs