FAQs | BEA Corporate Online

You can complete an online application or call BEA Corporate Express (2211 1868) for enquiries and to book an appointment to open BEA Corporate Online at a designated Business Centre. Please click here for the details.

You access BEA Corporate Online at any time and from anywhere as long as you have internet access and the recommended hardware, software, and browsers.

Once you’ve opened a CorporatePlus account with BEA Corporate Online, you can access the following account types:

• CorporatePlus accounts
• Current accounts
• Multi-currency statement savings accounts
• Time deposit accounts
• HKD savings accounts
• Foreign currency savings accounts

BEA Corporate Online is free of charge aside from transaction fees for designated services (including transfers). Please note that charges and annual fees may apply for additional services. For a list of charges, please refer to our Bank Charges by clicking here.

The daily transaction limit is the maximum withdrawal limit per day for BEA Corporate Online.

Authorised Person or System Administrator can submit an online instruction to increase your company’s daily transaction limit, and approve by an Authorised Person with a pre-defined signing arrangement. Once the instruction is fully approved, it will be effective at 6 a.m. on the next calendar date.

If you submit an online instruction to decrease your company’s daily transaction limit, this can be approved by an Authorised Person or System Administrator with a pre-defined signing arrangement. Once the instruction is fully approved, it will be effective immediately.

You can also increase your daily transaction limit by submitting the “Change of Related Information under BEA Corporate Online (BCO06)” form to any of our branches.

Yes. The table below shows the maximum daily transfer limit allowed through BEA Corporate Online. You are advised to set up daily transaction limits for each type of transaction according to your company’s needs when opening your BEA Corporate Online account.

Notes:

The amount of each foreign exchange transaction cannot be greater than HK$5 million or its equivalent (bank charges excluded).

A new "Cross-Border Sub-Limit only" with the default limit as per your existing limit under the existing "Fund Transfer & Remittance" limit for both local and cross border fund transfer. Your existing limit set for pre-designated/non-designated third party accounts will not be affected.

Online transactions are classified into four categories:

• Administrative Transactions (High Risk)
• Administrative Transactions (Low Risk)
• Transaction for Related Account(s) or Associated Account(s)
• Transaction Related to Third Party Account(s)
• Transaction Related to Payroll

You can define an approval matrix (for each category) when you open a BEA Corporate Online or by submitting the “Change of Related Information under BEA Corporate Online (BCO06)” form at one of our branches.

After opening a new sub-account under the existing All-in-one Account, please re-map the All-in-one Account through User Accounts & Services Access after one working day.

You can make the following transfers through BEA Corporate Online.

• Fund Transfer to Related/Associated Account
• Fund transfer to another BEA (HK) account
• Fund transfer to another local bank
• Fund transfer to BEA China
• Fund transfer to China or overseas

You can debit Fund Transfers from the following account types:

• Current accounts
• Multi-currency statement savings accounts
• HKD savings accounts
• Foreign currency savings accounts

Transfers to BEA (HK) accounts are free of charge. Please refer to our Bank Charges for other transfer types.

Fund transfers to BEA China accounts can only be made in Hong Kong dollars, Renminbi or US dollars. For the service hours, please click here for details.

Fund transfers to other local bank accounts can be made through the Faster Payment System (FPS) and CHATS. Fund transfers to other local bank accounts can only be made in Hong Kong dollars or renminbi through the Faster Payment System (FPS). Therefore, the receiving bank account must be a HKD or CNY account. In addition, transaction amounts over HKD5,000,000 or CNY1,000,000 will be made through CHATS.

You are required to input the merchant information (e.g. Bill reference number) if the receiving proxy ID is a FPS merchant.

And the CHATS can transfer funds in Hong Kong dollars, Renminbi or US dollars.

Fund transfers to other local bank accounts can only be made in Hong Kong dollars, renminbi, or US dollars. Therefore, the receiving bank account must be a HKD, CNY, or USD account. In addition, fund transfers can only be made during service hours on a working day, i.e. Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

One of your Authorised Persons needs to log in to BEA Corporate Online and use the “Manage Beneficiaries” function to register the third party beneficiary. Once the instruction is fully approved, it will be effective at 6 a.m. on the next calendar date. Alternatively, you can fill in Form BCO06, which you can find in the “Pre-designated Third Party Account(s)” section.

To make an overseas fund transfer, you need to provide the beneficiary’s bank or SWIFT BIC code, and enter their account name and address. .

For the service hours, please click here for details. .

Please click here for more information about fund transfer to overseas.

SWIFT refers to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. A SWIFT BIC is a Bank Identifier Code (8 or 11 alphanumeric characters) used in interbank telecommunication to ensure transfers can reach the correct receiving bank.

When you conduct a real-time fund transfer via BEA Corporate Online, you should verify the payment details, including recipient’s name, account number and amount carefully, before submitting your instruction.

You cannot cancel or stop the real-time fund transfer once you have confirmed it.

Besides, when you input the recipient’s account number for fund transfer to other bank, you are required to input the recipient’s name.

Inward Remittance Overview support Incoming T/T and Incoming CHATS instant transaction status enquiry. Service support previous 2 years history checking.

The service support customer to enquiry the scheduled instruction status and submit the cancel instruction request to bank. Customer can submit the cancel instruction one day before the transaction execution date through the same inquiry function.

Payment Tracking Services support outward T/T and outward CHATS instant transaction status enquiry. Service support previous 124 days history checking.

E-Statements are electronic statement including transaction record and balance in your account statements in PDF format. You can view and download them through BEA Corporate Online.

The e-Advice service are online notifications about particular types of account instruction or transaction update.

No. These services are free of charge.

All e-Statements/e-Advice notifications are in Portable Data Format (“PDF”), which is supported by most internet browsers. You will need to have Acrobat Reader (version 6.0 or above) installed on your computer to view the e-Statements/e-Advice notifications.

Every e-Statement in PDF format will be signed by a digital certificate from BEA to verify the e-Statement's authenticity and integrity. To validate the digital signature of the Bank, you need to download BEA's digital certificate to your Acrobat Reader. The procedure is as follows

Step 1:

Click on the Signatures tab on the left-hand side of your Acrobat Reader. The signature details will then be displayed.

Step 2:

Right click "Signature2, Signed by BEA Digital Certificate for e-Statement" of the signature details. A pop-up menu will be displayed. Select "Properties" in the menu. A Signature Properties window will appear.

Step 3:

After verifying that this document is signed by BEA, click "Trust Identity" under "Additional Information".

Step 4:

A certificate security alert pop-up window will be displayed. Click "OK" to confirm that you have verified the identity of the certificate.

Step 5:

Now proceed to import the certificate into your Acrobat Reader by clicking on the Import button. A few seconds later, an import complete message will be shown. Click "OK" to complete the download certificate procedure.

Step 6:

Upon completing Step 5, next time when you open a e-Statement, click on the Signatures tab on the left-hand side of your Acrobat Reader. It will show that "Signature is valid" to indicate the e-Statement is signed by a digital certificate from BEA.

You will receive your e-Statements two working days after they are issued. You can see the issuance date on your bank account statement.

E-statements are currently available for the following accounts:

• HKD current accounts
• USD current accounts
• CNY current accounts
• Statement savings accounts
• Time deposit accounts
• CorporatePlus accounts

Your Authorised Person can choose either “Paper Statements and e-Statements” or “e-Statements only” by going to “e-Statement/Advice Services -> Account Preference Settings”. You can update statement and advice delivery preference, register company email address to receive alert or notification anytime. Update of settings will take effect starting from your next statement cycle.

We encourage you to choose “e-Statements only’ to help save the environment. You will also save the monthly fee for paper statements. Please refer to Bank charges for details of the paper statement fee.

Through BEA Corporate Online, you can search for, view, and download e-Statements of a registered account from up to seven years in the past.

Yes. You can receive a notification by email or SMS and/or in your BEA Corporate Online inbox. Please see our “Alert Maintenance” user guide to learn how to set up your preferences through BEA Corporate Online.

You can search for, view, and download available e-Advice notifications (availability subject to account and product types) from up to two years in the past.

Currently we are offering e-advice for below fund transfer types:

• Fund transfers from or to other local banks
• Fund transfers from or to China and overseas

Please refer to our Statement and Advice user guide.

This service allows you to setting your BEA account as default / one of recipient banks to receive money from a contact by privately sharing with them your mobile phone number, email address, and/or FPS ID. Meanwhile, your bank account information remains secure and confidential.

To use this service, you must first register the mobile phone number / email address with the bank, then link following proxy IDs to a designated account:

• Mobile phone number
• Email address
• FPS ID (This unique identifier is generated by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited and enables you to receive money.)

Please refer to our FPS Addressing Service user guide.

You can link one Proxy ID to either one HKD or one CNY bank account.

• CorporatePlus accounts
• Current accounts
• Multi-currency statement savings accounts

Yes. You can change your default account through BEA Corporate Online.

Yes. An email notification will be sent once you have registered a proxy ID.

Your Proxy ID will be effective immediately after registration. After that, you can use your Proxy ID to receive money to your BEA account.

Before you can change your password settings online, your company must first complete the following steps for security purposes:

1. Assign at least one Authorised Person with a registered mobile phone number to receive one-time passwords (OTPs) for authentication requests from our bank, and
2. Register a valid company email address and mailing address

For details of the procedure, please refer to Section 2 on Quick Start Guide.

Your “Activation Code” is printed in the top right corner of the PIN Acknowledgement Letter.

“Request Reset PIN” can only be done by Authorised Person(s) for resetting all (or selected) login PINs and signer PINs in one-go.

For details, please click here.

“Forgot Login PIN” can be done by any user who can reset their login PIN by answering security questions.

The process to “Request reset PIN” is as follows:

Your Authorised Person can reset PIN online, please click “Request Reset PIN” under < BEA Corporate Online> on the main login page. Once you have submitted the relevant information, our customer services officer will contact you within two business days to verify your application. After the verification process is complete, the relevant PIN and PIN Acknowledgement Letter will be mailed to your company’s mailing address. If you request that the PIN and PIN Acknowledgement Letter be delivered by DHL, the DHL services charges will be debited from your relevant account.

Your Authorised Person can visit any of our branches to request a reprint of the PIN Acknowledgement Letter. Alternatively, you can choose to use the “Request reset PIN” function online, as long as you remember registered username(s) (as stated in account opening form / BCO application form).

Under normal circumstances, the PIN Acknowledgement Letter and PIN will be mailed to you within around six business days after the account is opened. If you do not received the PIN Acknowledgement Letter and PIN after that time, the Authorised Person of your company can visit any of our branches to request a new PIN. Alternatively, you can choose to use the “Request reset PIN” function online, as long as you remember registered username(s) (as stated in account opening form / BCO application form).

Application programming interface (“API”) is a computer programming approach for facilitating exchange of information and executing instructions between different computer systems. Open API allows banks to provide infrastructure for programmatic access by third-party service providers (“TSPs”) in an open and documented manner. Implementation of Open API enables information of different banks’ products and services to be aggregated under the same website/application for easy comparison and financial planning by users. BEA has been providing its Open API (Phase 1 and 2) to TSPs since January 2019.

BEA launched its Open API (Phase 3) for Corporate and SME Accounts in December 2022. Customers can grant and revoke their consent for users to access their specified BEA accounts’ information through the websites or mobile apps provided by eligible TSP partners of the Bank.

For more information, please visit Open API.

Our FX Watchlist function enables you to monitor the shifts and trends in TT exchange rates for your selected list of currency pairs.

You can choose up to eight currency pairs for your personalised watchlist.

The FX Rate Alert function sends you an alert if and when your target rate is reached within a set period. You can set up to 5 alerts for a monitoring period of up to 30 days. Each rate alert will expire once it is triggered or its monitoring period ends.

The service is free of charge.

The minimum transaction limit for each transfer involving foreign currency exchange is HK$1,000 and the maximum is HK$5,000,000 (or equivalent).

The daily transaction limit for foreign currency exchange depends on the type of transfer and transaction daily limit.

• Make online payments to EPSCO merchants inclusive of utilities, telephone, government organisations, educational institutions and many more
• Search and view Bill Payment history
• Cancel Scheduled Bill Payment instructions

The daily withdrawal limit called "To pre-designated 3rd party account (BEA and other banks)" will apply to all bill payment transactions.

The daily payment limit and transaction count limit of each bill is set by the respective merchant. Please contact the relevant merchant directly for further information.

No. Payment settings such as daily minimum or maximum payment amount, transaction count and bill type may vary, subject to the request of merchants.

Please allow sufficient funds and ensure normal status of the bank account you selected as a withdrawal account to process all bill payment instructions on the selected execution date.

No. The “Reference Number” or "Sent to Bank"/"Confirmed" status only indicates that your bill payment instruction is setup successfully. However, it cannot confirm the the delivery time of the payment to the merchant's account. You are advised to check with the relevant merchant for details. To avoid late payment charges, please refer to the guideline(s) published by the relevant merchants or be sure to allow for sufficient processing time when scheduling the instruction through the Bank.

Merchants which do not belong to following categories are considered as High Risk Merchants:
Government or Statutory Organisation; Public Utility; Primary or Secondary Education; Post-secondary or Specialised Education

Transfers to BEA (HK) accounts are free of charge. Please refer to our Bank Charges for other transfer types.

Your Authorized Person needs to setup the User File Identifier Mapping to new user before file upload. Please refer to our user guide.

Please go to BEA website under Autopay, Payroll and Collection to download the latest release of MAS.

Customer can setup instructions to make automatic payments to organisation / merchant, reply to the request raised by organization / merchant and manage the authorized eDDA instruction. Currently, e-Direct Debit Authorisation can be made in Hong Kong dollars.

You can safely log in to BEA Corporate Online by visiting BEA’s homepage at www.hkbea.com.

Please DO NOT click on any URLs or hyperlinks embedded in an email or SMS to access our Bank's website, or log in to BEA Corporate Online through such links with unknown sources.

Please make sure the computers you use to access BEA Corporate Online are secure (e.g. ensure the versions of your operating system and browsers are up-to-date, and install and update security software) and avoid using public computers or public Wi-Fi to access BEA Corporate Online.

Beware of any unusual login screen or message that asks you to provide additional personal information. If your device's network/traffic is unusually slow, you should log out BEA Corporate Online immediately and scan your device with the most up-to-date version of your virus protection software.

Log out immediately after use.

Never disclose your login ID and password to others, and never allow anyone else to use your login ID and password.

Important: BEA will never ask you for your PIN by email or phone. Also, customers will never be asked for any personal information by email, e.g. their name, account number, password, etc. For further information, please contact our Customer Service Hotline on (852) 2211 1321.

Your password must contain 8 - 16 alphanumeric characters, use a combination of numbers (0 - 9) and letters (a - z and A - Z). Do not use your identity card number, telephone number, date of birth, driving license number, or any commonplace number sequence (such as 987654 or 123456) when choosing your password.

Yes. You will receive an email notification when a fund transfer is made to a non-designated account. The email notification will send to approver email address and company email address. When you receive this kind of notification, please verify the accuracy of the transaction details promptly and inform BEA immediately of anything suspicious.

Please call our 24-hour Customer Service Hotline (852) 2211 1333 immediately or visit any BEA branch. For suspicious transactions, please complete a Report Suspicious Transactions Form.

BEA Corporate Online offers 8 types of security measures to safeguard your financial information:

1. Personal Identification Number ("PIN")

You can log in to BEA Corporate Online using your CorporatePlus account number, username, and login PIN.

2. Last Login Time

You can also view your previous login date/time after successfully logging in to BEA Corporate Online.

3. Automatic Exit

To help prevent unauthorised access, a BEA Corporate Online session will automatically expire once it has been idle for 10 minutes.

4. Regular Change PIN Reminders

Users are asked to change their PINs every 90 days. When creating a new PIN, a user cannot re-use the old PIN.

5. Transport Layer Security ("TLS") Encryption

TLS is an international and proven standard employed to ensure secure transmission of information. All information transmitted between your computer and the Bank through the internet is encrypted.

6. Alerts on High-risk Online Transactions

BEA Corporate Online will alert you by email and/or SMS whenever a high-risk transaction is completed online, such as transferring funds to an unregistered third-party account. Please ensure that the following transaction details shown in the email/SMS are the same as your instruction:

• BEA Identity Message
• Transaction amount
• Beneficiary account

7. Two-factor Authentication for High-risk Online Transactions

High-risk online transactions need to be signed using two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is an authentication mechanism that increases online security by using two separate factors to verify your identity: something you know (e.g. your user ID and password) and something you have (e.g. your mobile device where you receive a one-time password). You must have a valid email address and/or phone number on record for the relevant BEA Corporate Online account. Please ensure that your details are up-to-date at all times, and contact your Authorised Person if you need assistance.

8. Daily Withdrawal Limit Reset

The daily withdrawal limit for fund transfers conducted through your BEA Corporate Online to non-designated third-party accounts will be reset to zero if you have not conducted such a transaction through BEA Corporate Online for 18 consecutive months.

Please visit our Security Tips page for more information by clicking here.

Some of the latest versions of internet browsers have special features, such as "Autofill" in Microsoft Edge, that can save previous entries you have made for web addresses, forms, passwords, etc. Therefore, when you type similar information in one of these fields, a dropdown list with possible matches will be automatically available for selection.

To prevent unauthorised use of your account, you are recommended to disable this kind of feature in your browser, such as Personal info, Passwords, Payment info under Profiles in Settings of Edge. You may also lock your computer/laptop by using power-on passwords, etc.

An OTP is a SMS-based password generated by our Bank and sent to your registered mobile phone number as an additional form of identity authentication. An OTP enables you to perform designated transactions through BEA Corporate Online. OTPs for performing designated transactions will expire after 100 seconds.

You must ensure that the following transaction details shown in the SMS are the same as your instruction before entering the OTP:

• Transaction amount
• Last five digits of the deposit account/bill number
• Total number of transactions (only applies when signing multiple transactions)

Remarks: SMS messages with OTPs cannot be forwarded to any other phone number, even if you have enabled the "SMS Forwarding" service provided by mobile phone service providers in Hong Kong.

Ask your Authorised Person to register/change your mobile phone number through BEA Corporate Online.

Please refer to the Authorised Person(s) – Corporate User Creation & Maintenance and User Accounts & Services Access user guide.

An OTP will be required when you sign or access the following transactions/services:

• High-risk Administrative Transactions
• Fund transfers and remittances to non-registered third-party accounts
• Scheduled instructions of the transaction types listed above and other transactions/services that will be added from time to time as announced by our bank.
• Bill Payments - High-Risk Merchant. Please refer to Q2.7.7.

Yes. When you travel to Mainland China/overseas, please activate your roaming service on your mobile phone to ensure you can receive the SMS OTPs to complete the instructions submitted through BEA Corporate Online. If you are using an overseas mobile service providers, the service provider may not support receipt of international SMS messages. Please consult your telecommunication service provider for details.

You can contact any BEA branch or call our enquiry hotline on (852) 2211 1321 during service hours.

The service hours (Hong Kong time) of the hotline are:
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For phone numbers and addresses of our branches, please visit our website.

Please call our hotline on (852) 2211 1321 during service hours.

If you encounter technical problems when using our service, please call our hotline on (852) 2211 1321 during service hours.

Please refer to our System Requirements for more details.

Please press “Shift” + “F5” buttons on your keyboard to refresh the webpage. If you still encounter the problems, please call our hotline on (852) 2211 1321 during service hours for assistance.

Please download the “Notification for Change of Customer Information and/or Address for Corporate Customers GF463” form. Simply complete the form and submit it in person at any of our branches.

For security reasons, the normal toolbar of the browser will not appear in the BEA Corporate Online.

“Approver” can select up to 10 transactions (except FX transactions) under the same tab of “Pending Approvals” and click “Approve” or “Reject” button to proceed the multiple transaction approvals. Please be reminded that “Approver” must review every transaction details by clicking the transaction reference no. hyperlink on the “Approval Comment” or “Rejection Comment” window.

No. The FX related transactions (please refer to “FX indicator” column) and transactions that need to be approved by “Authorised Person” or “System Administrator” can only be approved individually.

No. After multiple transaction approvals, the selected transactions are submitted to further proceed. However, they can have different statuses. It is suggested to check the latest status under “My Approved List”.

This happen because “Approver” may not have the access to approve or reject the transaction, or “Approver” may approve or reject them during non-service hours, or it is in system enhancement. It is suggested to check with your company’s “Authorised Person” on the access right setting or retry later during service hour.