Effective 1^st January, 2011, the Deposit Protection Scheme (the "Scheme") has been enhanced to raise the maximum protection amount to HK$500,000. Accordingly, eligible depositors* of The Bank of East Asia, Limited ("BEA") are entitled to the enhanced protection immediately for deposits qualified for protection under the following BEA deposit products maintained in either a single deposit account or an all-in-one account (i.e. SupremeGold Account, Supreme Account, i-Account) or a Private Banking Account:

	Current Account;
	Savings Account (including passbook savings and statement savings);
	Time Deposit (including secured deposit); and
	Foreign Exchange Margin Trading Account.

The financial products which remain unprotected under the Scheme are as follows:

	Time deposits with a maturity longer than five years;
	Structured deposits (such as currency linked and indices / equity linked deposits);
	Offshore deposits;
	Bearer instruments (such as bearer certificates of deposit); and
	Financial products other than deposits (such as gold, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, unit trusts and insurance policies).

For enquiries, please contact BEA's Customer Service Hotline on (852) 2211 1823.

*Pursuant to the Deposit Protection Scheme Ordinance, "excluded persons" are defined as ineligible depositors who are not protected under the Scheme. Excluded persons include authorised institutions ("AI"), i.e. licensed banks, restricted licence banks and deposit-taking companies, foreign banks that are not AI, BEA's related companies; and senior management, directors and controllers of BEA or of its related companies. Please refer to the Deposit Protection Scheme Ordinance for details.