Investors interested in Hong Kong’s wealth management products are increasingly concerned about the city’s political future, according to a survey by the Private Wealth Management Association and KPMG China on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, launched in March this year, has been quite successful, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, said at a summit organised by the Private Wealth Management Association in Hong Kong on Friday, where the survey was released.
The programme, better known as the investment-migration scheme, has received about 670 applications, bringing in more than HK$20 billion (US$2.5 billion) so far, he said.
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The percentage of clients concerned about Hong Kong’s political future has grown from 21 per cent in 2023 to 28 per cent in 2024, according to private wealth management firms operating in the city.
Geopolitical tensions, including US-China frictions and an unprecedented number of elections globally, were contributing to a general sense of political uncertainty, the survey said.
China’s economy was a major concern, ranking second after central banks’ actions on interest rates that have an impact on Hong Kong’s private wealth management sector, according to the survey. China’s economy featured sixth on the list of concerns last year.
“They [wealth managers] have concerns, but actually Hong Kong as a wealth centre and a place to do business, I think, it’s still pretty solid,” said Jia Ning Song, head of banking and capital markets sector at KPMG.
This week, Hong Kong’s High Court handed down sentences ranging from four to 10 years for 45 pro-democracy activists after being convicted of conspiring to commit subversion under a national security law. During a meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Brazil on Monday, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed grave concerns regarding the health of jailed activist Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
However, despite all these concerns, net inflows into wealth management products offered by firms in the city nearly tripled in 2023 to HK$341 billion, from HK$121 billion in 2022, the report said.
Investments from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, which contributed to more than two-thirds of the total, helped total assets under management to grow by 0.6 per cent after two years of decline.
The Wealth Management Connect scheme, which allows residents of Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province to invest directly in designated wealth products, has contributed to the growth of the wealth management sector, Chan said.
In February this year, the scope of the investment products was enlarged and the investment quota was enhanced. The individual investment quota was increased from 1 million yuan (US$138,923) to 3 million yuan and yuan-denominated deposit products from mainland banks were added.
“In just a few months’ time, up to September this year, the cumulative amount of cross-boundary flow of funds went up six-fold, to reach over 91 billion yuan,” Chan said. “The majority of the fund flow was from the Greater Bay Area cities to Hong Kong. This has demonstrated the appeal and quality of the diversified investment product offerings by Hong Kong.”
Despite capital controls, studies indicate that since the pandemic the amount of private capital leaving China through both legal and illegal channels has surged significantly, reaching an estimated US$738 billion in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank. Chinese money has been invested in real estate in countries like Singapore and Japan.
Hong Kong’s effort to encourage ultra-high-net-worth individuals to establish family offices in Hong Kong has brought together influential families and decision makers to explore strategies for effective wealth succession, according to Chan.
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