Former HK leader says AmEx apologised to wife, baffled by legal incident

American Express has released an apology to former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun Ying's wife Regina Leung Tong Ching Yee, after she was sued for a credit card debt of more than HK$93,000 earlier this month. Leung said the brand has “sincerely apologised” to his wife for any inconvenience caused via an email by its lawyer.

Media analysis company CARMA revealed that it saw over 10k engagement with mentions of "American Express" or “美國運通“ generated on social media over the last 30 days. Most of the mentions were generated on 9 and 10 June 2022, right after Leung's wife reassured that her debts were already settled.

Charles Cheung, GM of CARMA said that in terms of sentiment of the brand, data showed that there were 15.1% negative and 4.3% positive social mentions over the last 30 days.

The incident came shortly after American Express filed a writ in the District Court on 8 June 2022, saying Regina Leung should have settled a HK$93,155.41 bill by late April. Regina Leung however argued that she had already paid the bill.Leung Chun Ying said in a Facebook post on Monday that the credit card company has already apologised to his wife through the lawyer, but insisted that “This incident is unusual and investigations are still ongoing to find who should be held accountable." 

Regina Leung also shared with local media the incident around payments, adding that she wasn't sure why American Express still filed the writ. She explained the incident might have happened because of her earlier cancelation of the autopay payment service for some accounts, causing misunderstandings.MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to American Express for more details.

Photo courtesy: Leung Chun Ying's official Facebook account

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