View of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd Photo: VCG
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Sunday that both domestic and international funds have cast a vote of confidence in the city, and that Hong Kong’s asset management business has achieved remarkable growth.
He also said that amid global geopolitical turmoil and the artificial intelligence (AI) wave, capital is being reallocated at an unprecedented scale. Unilateralism and regional conflicts drive capital to safe havens, while AI breakthroughs attract massive investment. How to capture and harness both flows is a key challenge for Hong Kong today, he wrote in his blog.
Chan’s remarks came after Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in a global wealth report last week that Hong Kong had overtaken Switzerland for the first time to be the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub.
Cross-border wealth booked in Hong Kong rose 10.7 percent in 2025 to reach $2.9 trillion, driven by inflows from the Chinese mainland, strong IPO activities, and equity-market gains.
Flows from the Chinese mainland represented more than 60 percent of assets under management, further cementing Hong Kong’s role as China’s gateway to global markets, BCG said in the report.
The consulting firm projected the city’s cross-border wealth to grow about 9 percent annually through 2030.
This report represents a vote of confidence from both domestic and international funds in Hong Kong’s institutional framework and investment environment, Chan wrote in his blog.
Chan also noted the annual report of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which said that Hong Kong’s total asset management business has exceeded HK$35 trillion ($4.47 trillion), with 54 percent of the funds coming from investors outside Hong Kong, including the Chinese mainland. This reflects the continued consolidation of the city’s asset management industry on an international level.
Hong Kong’s asset management business has seen remarkable growth, with total assets doubling and the number of asset management institutions nearly doubling from 2015 to 2024.
He stated that over the past few years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has introduced a number of support measures, including tax concessions for eligible family office businesses, thereby continuously injecting momentum into the development of the industry.
Chan also noted that the thriving development of various sectors, from stock markets, bond markets, and fixed income, to private equity and venture capital, is driving the entire financial market steadily forward.
By offering a more diverse range of investment products and risk management tools, international capital continues to find ideal allocation options within this ecosystem. This is also a key competitive advantage for us, he added.
The Hong Kong stock market has experienced steady growth over the past decade. This year, the average daily turnover exceeded HK$270 billion, nearly 10 percent higher than the total turnover for last year, according to Chan.
The Hong Kong stock market remained the world’s leading IPO market in the first quarter of 2026, as the total funds raised – HK$110.4 billion from 40 listed companies – set a record high for any first quarter since 2021, data showed in April.
In the primary market, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) remained the world’s leading IPO venue in the first quarter, with nearly six times the amount of IPO funds raised compared with the same period of 2025, according to a statement released by the HKEX.
The IPO pipeline remained robust, with 431 listing applications under processing as of March 31, up 25 percent from the end of 2025.
Global Times
