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Hong Kong’s journey as a financial center is being uniquely shaped by the influence of Greater China, regulations and the entrepreneurship of banks. Here are the top five wealth management trends in town.

By Richard Otsuki, Senior Contributor for finews.asia

1. Coaxing Greater China’s Day Traders to Pay Fees

Asian HNWIs' penchant for active trading is no secret but within the region, Greater China clients across the board are the dominant segment in this domain by a meaningful margin. This is in contrast to wealth management rival Singapore, home to a greater share of multi-generational wealth from countries like Indonesia and India which have more experience with traditional Swiss banking and delegating assets to professional managers.

As a result, private banking revenues in Hong Kong are heavily skewed towards transactional income – a significant risk in times of market stress where clients will opt to deleverage and stop trading.

As a result, the industry continues to preach the benefits of using both funds and discretionary mandates to help clients diversify and manage risks actively while generating stable revenue for banks. To further bolster fee-based income in Hong Kong where it is traditionally weaker, advisory mandates are increasingly being promoted to generate fee-based income without taking decision-making away from clients.