Shanghai, November 20 (Xinhua) -- The volatile market calls for professionalism. In recent years, the demand for wealth management among Chinese residents has been increasing day by day. However, with the weakening momentum of global economic recovery and the volatility of the wealth management market, how can the wealth management industry respond to new changes? Recently, Miao Zijun, Director of HSBC China Global Private Banking, stated in an interview with Xinhua Finance that as China's economy steadily moves towards high-quality development, the wealth management needs of private banking clients in mainland China are becoming increasingly comprehensive and diversified. HSBC will further leverage its global network advantages and increase customized services for the Chinese market.
Continuously increasing resource investment, business growth trend is good
The development potential of the wealth management market in mainland China is enormous. "At the beginning of the interview, Miao Zijun made it clear that he had confidence in the mainland Chinese market. He said that China is the world's second-largest wealth management market. Despite the overall slowdown in global economic growth, the total amount of private wealth in the Chinese market continues to grow. HSBC Group expects that by 2025, the investable assets of Chinese households are expected to exceed 300 trillion yuan.
The report by international consulting firm McKinsey also has a similar judgment. McKinsey predicts that personal financial assets in China will maintain an average annual growth rate of 9% from 2022 to 2030, reaching 475 trillion yuan by 2030, and the scale of personal holdings of asset management products is expected to reach 118 trillion yuan by 2030.
Therefore, HSBC Group continues to expand its wealth management business in mainland China. From a data perspective, in 2023, HSBC Group's wealth management investment assets in mainland China increased by 53% year-on-year, and the total number of wealth management clients increased by over 30% year-on-year.
In terms of specific measures, HSBC Group has focused on building three channels and four product centers in mainland China. The three channels include excellent wealth management services on the bank side, global private banking, and HSBC insurance brokerage company; The four product centers are banking, insurance, asset management, and securities, jointly providing wealth management products for the three channels.
In the past two years, HSBC China has become the first foreign bank in China to sell trust plans to hedge funds, and has launched family trust consulting services, becoming the first foreign bank in China to launch mobile banking investment and wealth management functions for private banking clients.
In June of this year, HSBC China completed the acquisition of Citigroup's personal wealth management business in mainland China, taking over Citigroup's personal wealth management clients and related assets in 11 major cities across the country. Over 300 former Citigroup employees have also officially joined HSBC.
Based on local demand, create a new track for wealth management
The expectation of wealth management is closely related to the state of social development.
Miao Zijun said that as China's economy steadily moves towards high-quality development, the wealth management needs of mainland private banking clients are becoming increasingly comprehensive and diversified. In addition to traditional wealth preservation and appreciation needs, these needs have also become the direction of efforts for HSBC Private Banking.
Taking intergenerational inheritance as an example, after decades of rapid economic development, China's "wealth creation generation" is about to enter its first critical period of intergenerational inheritance. Private entrepreneurs who become the main force in creating social wealth are expected to complete intergenerational inheritance within 10 to 20 years. However, according to HSBC's research, the majority of Asian entrepreneurs (with an average of about 70% in Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China) have not yet discussed wealth inheritance with their families.
HSBC Wealth Management has a long history worldwide, so we can fully utilize our experience in other markets to serve the Chinese market, "said Miao Zijun. In this regard, HSBC can leverage its nearly 80 years of family inheritance service experience across multiple economic cycles in the Asia Pacific region to work with partners to serve the orderly and stable inheritance of wealth for high net worth individuals such as domestic entrepreneurs.
It is reported that HSBC China has launched integrated services covering family trust consulting services, risk planning, international education, and charity consulting, among other heritage scenarios. In addition to assisting in the development of a wealth inheritance structure, HSBC has also partnered with renowned business schools to launch a second-generation inheritance program, which provides customized short-term selected learning courses for the next generation to cultivate and enhance their ability to cope with inheritance and innovative management.
At the beginning of this year, HSBC Global Private Banking further upgraded its global identity services for its clients, connecting the service channels of HSBC Wealth Management and assisting clients in achieving identity recognition within the bank's global business network. Chinese customers will be equipped with a dedicated Chinese service team to support their multi-dimensional financial needs such as travel, study abroad, and medical care in multiple destinations both domestically and overseas.
Anchoring internationalization and building differentiated competitive advantages
In recent years, with the increasing size of the "cake" in China's wealth management market and the growing number of "entrants" in the industry, how can we seek differentiation advantages in fierce competition?
In Miao Zijun's view, the extensive global network coverage is one of HSBC's biggest competitive advantages. He introduced that as an international bank, HSBC has established 13 global private banking accounting centers worldwide, covering international wealth centers such as Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
In addition, the linkage with other businesses is also one of HSBC's key advantages. It is reported that its "one-stop global private banking" service capability enables HSBC not only to provide private banking services to customers, but also to leverage the close cooperation between global private banking and corporate business, connect with various markets, and provide comprehensive global financial services to enterprises with international perspectives.
For example, in response to the comprehensive wealth management needs of high net worth clients such as "Renjia Enterprise Society", HSBC Global Private Banking and HSBC Group's securities, fund, insurance, and fintech institutions in mainland China have formed a joint force to customize special account plans for their clients, achieving full coverage of private, family, and corporate asset allocation.
In the process of assisting clients in global and diversified asset allocation, we have a professional team of chief investment officers to help them understand what is happening in the global market every day and where the current hotspots are, "said Miao Zijun. HSBC also uses strategic asset allocation models to help clients manage major asset allocation based on investors' risk tolerance and investment willingness. At present, the HSBC China Mobile Banking app has launched an asset allocation report function, allowing customers to track the distribution of assets anytime and anywhere for timely adjustments.
Not only that, in mainland China, HSBC Global Private Banking has also partnered with HSBC Qianhai Securities to create a strategic cooperation model between securities firms and private banks. HSBC Qianhai Securities has established a business department dedicated to serving private banking clients, leveraging their respective expertise to jointly provide diversified customized comprehensive asset management services for private banking clients.