Bank of East Asia : BEA Wins Best SME’s Partner Gold Award for Four Straight Years

For Immediate Release

BEA Wins Best SME's Partner Gold Award for Four Straight Years

Hong Kong, 23rd November, 2021 - The Bank of East Asia, Limited ("BEA" or "the Bank") today announces that it has won the "Best SME's Partner Gold Award", organised by The Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business ("the Chamber"), for the fourth consecutive year, in recognition of its long-standing support of small and medium enterprises ("SMEs") in Hong Kong. Mr Ken Kwan, Head of Enterprise Banking Department at BEA, accepted the award on behalf of the Bank at a ceremony held in November, 2021.

Responding to the award wins, Mr Kwan said, "We are honoured to receive this award again. BEA provides comprehensive banking solutions to local SME clients, catering to their diverse financial needs in this ever-changing business environment."

"Since the pandemic began, we have worked on a series of supportive measures to help SMEs weather unprecedented challenges brought by COVID-19. To grow alongside our SME customers, we continually strengthen our services in the Greater Bay Area to address their cross-boundary business needs. We have also expanded our trade specialist team to provide professional trade financing solutions for corporate customers."

BEA has been recognised for its support for SMEs by the Chamber every year for the past 14 years, receiving the "Best SME's Partner Award" for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017, and the Gold award every year from 2018 onwards.

The Bank recently launched a series of new initiatives to further improve service experience for SME customers. In addition to streamlining processes to further shorten the account opening time, the Bank invested additional resources to provide SMEs an extensive suite of banking services, including the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme, green financing, payment and cash management, trade solutions, corporate wealth management, treasury products, insurance services and online banking services.

BEA offers its corporate customers a wide range of flexible tailor-made services. For more information on BEA's corporate banking services, please call (852) 2211 1338 or visit any BEA branch or the Bank's homepage at www.hkbea.com.

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About The Bank of East Asia, Limited

Incorporated in 1918, The Bank of East Asia, Limited ("BEA") is a leading Hong Kong-

based financial services group listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, with total consolidated assets of HK$900.5 billion (US$116.0 billion) as of 30th June, 2021.

BEA provides a comprehensive range of corporate banking, personal banking, wealth management, and investment services to customers through an extensive network of more than 150 outlets covering Hong Kong, the rest of Greater China, Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more information, please visit

www.hkbea.com.

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Mr Ken Kwan, Head of Enterprise Banking Department of BEA (centre) receives the Best SME's Partner Gold Award on behalf of the Bank at the presentation ceremony. Guest presenters included (from left to right): Mr Derek Wu, Chairman of the SME's Award Organizing Committee, Vice President and Deputy Treasurer; Mr Chan Mo-po,Paul, Financial Secretary; Mr Calvin Chau, President of The Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business; and Mr Stanley Zheng, Chairman of the Award Ceremony Organizing Committee, Vice President and Consultant of Young Executive Committee.

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