The Force commends outstanding bank staff for helping police combat scams (with photos)
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The Bank Staff Recognition Ceremony organised by the Hong Kong Police Force was held today (August 30). The award recognises the efforts of banks and frontline bank staff in assisting the Police to combat deception cases.
The ceremony was officiated by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Siu Chak-yee. Executive Director of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Ms Carmen Chu; and representative of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, Ms Boey Wong were also invited as officiating guests to present the awards.
Addressing the ceremony, Mr Siu said that there had been an alarming rise of deception cases. In 2016, the number of deception cases was around 10 per cent of the overall crime cases but now it has jumped to one in every three cases. He pointed out that fraudsters had employed different defrauding tricks to commit crimes with use of phones and Internet, in which had posed huge challenges to crime prevention. Therefore, the Police work in close collaboration with the banking sector in combating deception cases.
Mr Siu added that the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) had successfully prevented 1 760 scam cases from happening with joint efforts from the Police and the banking sector since its establishment in July 2017. Among them, more than 460 cases were detected by bank staff resulting in the arrests of 571 fraudsters and intercepting over $10.7 billion. He praised the frontline bank staff for their vigilance and professionalism which had successfully prevented scams from happening.
He said he hoped the bank sector would deepen the collaboration with the banking sector, in particular in regard to the “24/7” Stop-Payment Mechanism, thereby to intercept payments to fraudsters in round-the-clock manner. The Police also hoped the sector could actively adopt a multi-pronged approach to combat deception cases by making use of RegTech in crime detection and prevention, in addition to traditional educational promotion.
In addition to individual awards, eight cooperate awards were established, including The Most Active Participation Award (Champion, 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up), Effective Application of Regtech, Expert Assistance on the Prosecution against Loco London Gold Scams, Active Participation in Scam Prevention Training, Extensive Display of Anti-Scam Publicity Materials and High Turnout of Scam Response Teams, in recognition of the banks’ contributions in prevention and inspection of deception cases, as well as interception and reporting. (The awardees are listed in the Annex).
In the past year and a half, a total of 192 frontline bank staff had assisted the Police in identifying 290 deception cases and reported them to the ADCC, thus preventing the public from falling into scams. Meanwhile, a bank rewarded with “Effective Application of Regtech” had successfully detected at least 26 on-going deception cases by application of RegTech, during which its staff conducted enquiries to victims and convinced them to report the cases, allowing the Police to activate the Stop-Payment Mechanism and assist the victims to recover their losses.
In the first half of 2022, a total of 12 326 deception cases was recorded, registering a significant increase of 42 per cent compared with that of the same period of 2021, with pecuniary loss exceeding $2.1 billion.
Sep 24, 2021 | International
Acting CE commends teachers for teaching excellence (with photos)
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The following is issued on behalf of the Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence Steering Committee:
The Acting Chief Executive, Mr Paul Chan, today (September 24) officiated at and presented the Award for Teaching Excellence to 15 teachers at the Award Presentation Ceremony of Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence (CEATE) (2019/2020) and (2020/2021). Another 23 teachers received the Certificate of Merit from the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, during the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Chan expressed his heartfelt congratulations to the awarded teachers and thanked them for their dedicated efforts in education. Through their company and guidance, students cultivated a strong interest to pursue knowledge and reading as well as the spirit to explore, leading to the cultivation of good morals.
“The awarded teachers regard moral cultivation as the foundation of education and are committed to enhancing students’ ability to think and discern. They systematically planned the curriculum and organised a variety of colourful experiential learning activities to allow students to develop positive values, a commitment to society, as well as a sense of national identity, love for Hong Kong and international perspectives,” he said.
He also encouraged teachers to actively participate in exchange activities with the Mainland. Through observation and exchanges, they could explore ways to improve teaching professionalism with outstanding senior teachers in the Mainland. At the same time, they can use these opportunities to personally understand the country’s development, strengthen their understanding of the country’s politics, economy, society, history and culture, and then share their knowledge gained with colleagues and students.
The Chairman of the CEATE Steering Committee, Dr Gordon Tsui, said, “I wish to extend my appreciation to the awarded teachers for dedicating themselves to their jobs amid the challenges of COVID-19 to nurture positive attitudes and values in students through teaching and modelling, while they still endeavoured to pursue continuous self-improvement and innovative teaching practices. They made strenuous efforts, through designing diversified learning activities and making use of multi-media across different online platforms, to promote the integration of knowledge in various learning areas, developing the skills and cultivating the values of students which successfully stimulated students’ learning motivation and enhanced learning and teaching effectiveness with a view to building up a solid foundation for students’ learning and growth.”
Dr Tsui said that more than 900 teachers from different themes have been awarded since the launch of CEATE in 2003. The CEATE Award has won community-wide recognition. He encouraged the awarded teachers to actively disseminate their excellent teaching practices through the CEATE Teachers’ Association and various professional exchange platforms to inspire fellow teachers so as to build and reinforce the culture of pursuing excellence. Looking ahead, future CEATEs would bring together accomplished teachers with a view to making contributions to promote quality education.
There were 121 nominations and 104 nominations received for CEATE (2019/2020) and (2020/2021) respectively. At the end of the assessment procedures, five nominations (comprising 15 teachers) were presented with the Award for Teaching Excellence while seven nominations (comprising 23 teachers) were presented with the Certificate of Merit in total. The awarded nominations covered themes including “Chinese Language Education Key Learning Area (KLA)”, “Moral and Civic Education”, “Arts Education KLA”, “Mathematics Education KLA” and “Special Educational Needs”. Assessment of nominations focused on teachers’ performance in the four domains of “Professional Competence”, “Student Development”, “Professionalism and Commitment to the Community”, and “School Development”. Please visit CEATE website (www.ate.gov.hk) for the list of awarded teachers.
The Award Presentation Ceremony was held at Education Bureau Kowloon Tong Education Services Centre. Officiating guests also included the Permanent Secretary for Education, Ms Michelle Li; the Chairman of the Education Commission, Mr Tim Lui; the Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council, Professor Tam Kar-yan; the Chairman of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Mr Samuel Yung; and the Chairman of the CEATE Assessment Working Group (2019/2020) and (2020/2021), Professor Horace Ip.
Sharing activities involving CEATE awarded teachers are being rolled out gradually this school year to disseminate excellent teaching practices. Details will be announced on the CEATE website and EDB Training Calendar.
Nominations for the CEATE (2021/2022) will be accepted on or before October 4. Its themes cover “Physical Education KLA”, “Science Education KLA” and “Curriculum Leadership”.
