- French bank apologises for ‘offence caused by a social media post that was expressed on one of our employees’ personal accounts’
- Lender also criticised for referring to Hong Kong and Taiwan as countries on its website
Internet users in China are calling for a boycott of French bank BNP Paribas after discovering that one of its employees in Hong Kong apparently supports the city's anti-government protesters, and noticing that the company refers to Hong Kong and Taiwan as "independent countries" on its website.
Since last week, China's Twitter-like service Weibo has been flooded with accusations that the unidentified worker posted messages on Facebook calling for independence for Hong Kong. Many said the bank should take action against the person.
In a statement issued on Friday, BNP said: "We deeply apologise for the offence caused by a social media post that was expressed on one of our employees' personal accounts."
It did not name the individual but said the "views expressed in the post do not reflect the views of BNP Paribas".
"We have spoken to the employee, who has since deleted the post, and we have taken immediate action regarding the matter." It did not elaborate.
The bank said that while it respected its employees' freedom of expression it did not tolerate the use of disrespectful language.
"We expect all of our employees to communicate respectfully at all times and we strongly condemn any action or behaviour that contributes to division."
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That was not enough for a Weibo user with the name Guyan Muchan.
"Since the bank that is making money from China and did not take any further action, we have to boycott (it)."
The post had generated more than 4,000 likes of Wednesday evening.
Other internet users took offence at BNP Paribas referring to Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries on its website. Last month, several other companies, including Swarovski, Versace, Coach and Givenchy apologised for doing the same.
A number of banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, last month used newspaper advertisements to call for a peaceful resolution to the protests in the city.
BNP is seeking to expand its China operations to include brokerage, futures trading and wealth-management ventures, and was last month granted approval to underwrite all types of company notes in the interbank bond market.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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