By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-31 00:36:08 | Updated at 2025-04-01 19:40:59
1 day ago
HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong with 6.2 million customers, will invest heavily in wealth management and technology in the city, using it as a base to tap the fast-growing markets in Asia, according to group CEO Georges Elhedery.
“Hong Kong is on track to be the largest cross-border wealth hub on the planet before the end of this decade, and we are in a bold position to be able to capture this growth opportunity,” Elhedery said in a media briefing on Thursday. “I am very optimistic about Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong, where the bank was established 160 years ago, is its largest profit contributor and biggest source of new clients. Pre-tax profit from the Hong Kong operations, including its Hang Seng Bank unit, grew 9.5 per cent last year to US$11.69 billion, largely due to the addition of 800,000 customers.
“We moved our customer base from 5.4 million to 6.2 million here, which demonstrates how important the Hong Kong market is,” said Elhedery, who took over in September.
HSBC’s customer base in Hong Kong was equal to more than 80 per cent of the city’s 7.5 million population, but that was not going to limit the bank’s client growth as most new signings were from those living elsewhere, he said. About two-thirds of non-local new customers were from mainland China and the rest from across the world, he added.
“Hong Kong is probably one of the brightest spots for the last couple of years, so there is definitely strong optimism in terms of Hong Kong as a global financial centre,” Elhedery said.
