Ahead of the budget to be announced on February 23, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said he remains open-minded about whether the government would give out another round of electronic consumption vouchers this year.

Sources said the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau set up meetings with operators of electronic payment platforms, where officials said they could introduce new platforms to the scheme.

Four platforms participated in last year’s HK$5,000 consumption voucher scheme: Octopus, Tap & Go, AliPay, and WeChat Pay.

Officials were said to have indicated they would retain some of the four operators.

Bank of China, with its platform BoC pay, was said to be one of the potential new operators to be included.

Although the bank is not a license holder of Stored Value Facility, it can handle huge payment transactions as the second-largest bank in Hong Kong.

It was understood that the bank is considering applying for a Stored Value Facility license.

As for PayMe of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which has more than 2.5 million users, a spokesman said the company has always supported initiatives that help develop electronic payments in Hong Kong.

A banking source said that PayMe was not selected last year as it was not as widely used by merchants as the other platforms. But the platform has since partnered with more businesses such as takeaway platforms.