Sales of non-exchange-traded investment products in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reached an all-time high last year, driven by a record level of market participation with strong demand for fixed-income, currency and commodity (FICC)-related products.
According to the annual joint survey by the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority published on Tuesday, sales of non-exchange-traded investment products surged 63 percent year-on-year to HK$9.9 trillion ($1.27 trillion) in 2025. FICC-related products such as debt securities and money market funds were particularly popular, as these products cater to investors’ needs for income-generating assets and liquidity-management solutions amid fast-changing market conditions.
Sales of collective investment schemes (CIS) and structured products rose 85 percent and 53 percent year-on-year, respectively, while CIS overtook structured products for the first time as the top-selling product type since 2020.
The number of clients who completed at least one transaction in non-exchange-traded investment products jumped by 33 percent to more than 1.6 million, while the number of licensed corporations and registered institutions engaged in investment product sales grew 9 percent to 452. The number of large firms increased 27 percent to 128.
Meanwhile, the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) — an advisory body for the SAR’s financial services industry — said Hong Kong must evolve from just an initial public offering (IPO) venue into a global capital nexus with interoperability and attributes of multi-currency execution and a multi-asset ecosystem.
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This would accommodate the lifecycle funding needs of companies and the diversified investment needs of global investors, according to an FSDC report titled “Hong Kong Capital Market Leadership 2.0: A Shared Action Agenda for Building Hong Kong’s Global Capital Nexus”, which was released on Tuesday. The FSDC engaged more than 600 financial services industry practitioners across 30 closed-door roundtables to produce the report.
The report envisions Hong Kong as a market where issuers, investors, intermediaries, instruments and infrastructure connect efficiently across borders. Particularly, it suggests Hong Kong develop a full-lifecycle capital formation center anchored by a corporate rescue framework and streamlined follow-on process that can support companies’ refinancing and restructuring needs.
Speaking at a Tuesday press conference to accompany the publication, FSDC Vice-Chairman Andrew Weir said: “It is an ongoing journey on the corporate rescue system in Hong Kong. The more that is modernized, the more it is brought into line with other major financial centers that can support Hong Kong’s overall positioning.”
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FSDC Executive Director Rocky Tung Yat-ngok added: “There are economic cycles, and economic cycles mean there are ups and downs of markets, and there could be times when you know certain sectors are darlings to investors. There are times when such industries may not want to be continuing their status as a listed company. Therefore, we need to allow and enforce the cycle to be done and carried out more seamlessly.”
The report suggests developing new market indices so that more index products can be captured to better address global investment needs, strengthening the city’s multi-asset ecosystem. Building a dual/multi-currency benchmark bond yield curve is essential for enhancing predictability, continuity, and maturity coverage across Hong Kong and renminbi-denominated bonds, it says.
The report also calls for the mobilization of patient capital, such as studying the Mandatory Provident Fund’s eligibility to cover alternative investments and infrastructure-related assets; strengthening structured engagement with mainland pension capital regarding international capital deployment through Hong Kong; and exploring the introduction of professional investor participation mechanisms under the MPF system.
“Hong Kong has to recalibrate the connect programs for the next decade such as broadening southbound product eligibility under the wealth management and ETF connect programs,” the report says.
On the infrastructure front, developing CMU OmniClear as a regionally significant international central securities depository, particularly with fixed income and equity custody under unified governance, is essential for evolving a broader multi-asset platform in the special administrative region, it adds.
