ETRADE FINANCIAL, which quit the online Hong Kong stock trading service two years ago, is bullish about its business prospects in Asia.
The firm, one of the largest online brokerages globally, recently opened a branch in Singapore for institutional investors.
Michael Fong, head of retail services in Hong Kong, did not discount the possibility of serving retail clients in the Lion City.
'But we are not at a stage to discuss this yet. Etrade is open to opportunities that make sense,' he said.
Mr Fong saw great growth potential in the Asia-Pacific because of the growing number of internet users in the past three years.
'There are now 302 million internet users in Asia compared with 221 million in North America. In total, Asia's penetration rate is 8.4 per cent of the population compared with 67.4 per cent in North America. The narrowing of the gap will see a huge potential for online players,' he said.
He said Greater China was a huge market opportunity as the region had 112 million internet users and 58 million online households, with 19 per cent of these internet users on broadband. While these numbers were exciting, it would be a challenge to get these users to use the Net to trade stocks or currencies.