Banks are expanding again after nearly seven years of cost cutting, which included the closure of hundreds of branches, following the Asian financial crisis.
The severe reduction of staff and branch numbers since 1997 - partly a response to the economic downturn and partly a result of efforts by some banks to redirect their focus away from the retail market - has seen Hong Kong moving slowly away from being one of the most over-banked cities in the world.
Still, the present ratio of one branch for every 3,000 or so citizens is one of the highest globally.
However, since the start of this year, bank executives have been announcing plans to expand their branch presence and many of these plans are beginning to materialise.
One of the most aggressive players is Citibank, which has opened three Citigold wealth management centres and three branches for its lending arm, CitiFinancial.
A spokeswoman said the bank planned to open two more wealth management centres and a further seven CitiFinancial branches by the end of this year.