Mobile phone messages cause a bank run in Hong Kong

Considering the worldwide financial crisis, banks in South East Asia seem to be quite stable, however on September 24th there were rumours, spread by text messages, suggesting that the Bank of East Asia had some problems. As a result people went queing for the bank in order to withdraw their money, but instead of getting into panic, they all remained very calm. The Bank of East Asia said that the rumours were false and that the amount of riscs was only 1% of the total capital. To avoid more panic, the bank extended its opening hours and spread messages to tell the depositors that the bank was enough liquid and capitalised.

Lien De Cuyper

(www.economist.com)