STANDARD Chartered's decision to move the senior management of its Equitor financial services division to Singapore is much more significant than the small number of people being shifted might suggest.
As one of the front-line providers of custodian services for fund managers, Equitor is very much part of the fund management and financial services sector in Hong Kong.
Despite invitations and incentives, Singapore's ambitions to be a global fund management centre are still a long way from being realised.
It can be argued that Hong Kong is where the money is, and Hong Kong is where the serious players still keep their main operations. About 100 managers may have put up their signboards in Singapore, but few regard it as their main gateway to the region.
This is of less importance than it seems. The main clients for regional custodians are not regional funds, but the global custodians that handle billions of dollars worth of clients' money and which are based in the US, Europe and Japan.
Equitor's main competitors in the fight for regional custody are Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, with its Hexagon system, and Citibank. It is inconceivable that Hongkong Bank would move its Hexagon management to another city in the region - it has even strongly denied that the merger with Midland might see a shift in emphasis towards London.