Hong Kong's banking industry has urged an immediate end to protests in the city to stop any erosion of the city's hard-won reputation as a financial hub.

As Hong Kong students and government squared off against one another yesterday ahead of talks to defuse pro-democracy protests, banks urged a halt to the clashes to protect the jurisdiction’s reputation as a financial hub.

In a sign that the industry is becoming more vocal and impatient about the impact of protests that have gone on – with varying intensity – for over three weeks, the Hong Kong Association of Banks issued a statement in which it called for “an immediate end to the protests to allow those affected by the disruption to recover and help Hong Kong preserve its competitiveness and maintain international investor confidence”. By the standards of such missives the statement was blunt in its warnings of the damage extended disruption could be causing.

The HKAB’s comment underlines a fear that some banking groups have that a protracted bout of protest and disruption to services casts the jurisdiction in a poor light and is particularly serious as rival centres such as Singapore are battling for a share of its business.

“HKAB urges the Hong Kong community to value the city’s reputation as an international financial centre which has been hard earned through years of concerted efforts,” it said in its statement.

As reported here earlier this month, a number of banking groups, such as Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered and HSBC, among others, had to temporarily shut some branches in affected parts of Hong Kong. A couple of weeks ago the Hong Kong Monetary Authority reported that more than 30 bank branches were affected, although financial market operations were in general operating as normal.

Yesterday, the HKMA reported that five branches of five banks were temporarily shut because of the disruption.

The protesters want free elections in the jurisdiction, which since 1997 has been a Chinese territory, albeit operating under a separate regime. China insists that candidates be screened first. The Beijing-backed leader of the city, Leung Chun-ying, has said the government will not compromise on China’s restrictions.

The issue is one of the most serious blows to Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable legal and financial hub since it ceased being a UK colony.

A report by Reuters, among others, said talks between student representatives and senior city government officials, scheduled for today, may produce small confidence-building measures and an agreement to continue the dialogue, but are unlikely to close a wide area of disagreement or stop demonstrations.

It was reported that people were injured in two nights of clashes over the weekend in Mong Kok, including 22 police. Four people have been arrested for assault, reports said.