Hong Kong banks offer Liverpool, Jay Chou tickets and rebates to win new wealthy clients
Banks target growing pool of wealthy mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong during May 1-5 golden week holiday
Banks in Hong Kong are doing their best to lure new wealthy clients among mainland Chinese visitors to the city, offering tickets to Liverpool vs AC Milan football match and access to concerts by Taiwanese singer Jay Chou, in addition to cash rebates.
They were among notable incentives rolled out by lenders including Standard Chartered, HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Citigroup and the Bank of East Asia during the golden week holiday, highlighting the stiff competition in selling investment products and gathering cheap deposits to spur lending.
The holiday, which runs from May 1 to 5, is expected to attract 840,000 visitors from mainland China, which would amount to a 10 per cent increase from a year earlier, according to government estimates. Mainland Chinese visitors rose 31 per cent to 34 million last year, accounting for 77 per cent of all arrivals in Hong Kong, official data showed. They are known to be major investors in insurance products sold in the city.
“Many mainland Chinese customers will seize the opportunity to address their banking and wealth-management needs while visiting Hong Kong,” said Winnie Ng, head of distribution sales management for wealth and personal banking at HSBC Hong Kong. “We have adopted an experience-led approach in designing our offerings and privileges.”
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Hong Kong, which had HK$31 trillion (US$4 trillion) in assets under management in 2023, could overtake Switzerland by 2027 as the world’s top hub for cross-border wealth-management services, according to forecasts from the Boston Consulting Group.