Macau clarifies new UnionPay withdrawal limits

Macau’s financial authority has refuted reports that it plans to impose new daily limits on UnionPay bank card withdrawals from Macau ATMs.

Casino shares tumbled on Thursday following a South China Morning Post report that the Monetary Authority of Macau planned to halve the UnionPay daily withdrawal limit of MOP 10k (US $1,250) to 5k to combat brazen efforts to evade China’s capital controls.

On Friday, the Monetary Authority issued a statement saying it had halved the amount that UnionPay card holders could withdraw in a single transaction, but that the daily withdrawal limit would remain at its previous level. A spokesperson said the reduction was “meant to increase our supervisory efforts on ongoing banking operations.”

The change was reportedly sparked after organized groups lined up at ATMs with stacks of UnionPay cards and withdrawing the maximum daily limit on each, taking out a total of MOP 10b in just the month of November. The SCMP’s number crunchers figure this represented 33k individual maximum withdrawals every day for 30 days. The Monterary Authority neither confirmed nor denied these reports.