Exclusive | Hong Kong gains favour as platform for wealth planning, family offices in 2026: bank CEO
City’s stock market and incentives will continue to attract family offices from around Asia-Pacific, Bank of Singapore’s Hong Kong CEO says
Wealthy families will continue to use Hong Kong to set up family offices for succession planning and diversifying their investments in 2026, thanks to its vibrant market and government incentives, according to the Hong Kong CEO of Bank of Singapore.
The bank, which is the private banking unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), has a bullish outlook after it reported very strong performance in 2025, according to Rickie Chan, who is also the bank’s head of private banking for Greater China.
When Chan joined Bank of Singapore’s Hong Kong branch as CEO in February 2024, he set a high target of achieving 50 per cent growth in assets under management by the end of 2026, he said.
“We achieved our goal in September 2025, one year earlier than initially targeted,” he said in an exclusive interview.
“A key driver is the wealth planning business, which has seen revenue almost triple year on year as of the third quarter, as an increasing number of wealthy families from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia are using Hong Kong as a platform for succession planning and wealth management.”
Between 2023 and 2030, ultra-high-net-worth families with liquid assets over US$30 million in the Asia-Pacific region were set to experience an intergenerational wealth transfer estimated at US$3.4 trillion, Chan said, citing a McKinsey report.