Hong Kong banks face limited Middle East risk but tensions cloud expansion plans
HSBC and Standard Chartered expanded in the Middle East in recent years to capture growing cross-border trade and wealth management flows
Hong Kong lenders have only “insignificant” exposure to the Middle East, the city’s banking regulator said, although analysts expect escalating tensions in the region could slow local banks’ expansion plans in the near term.
“The exposures of the Hong Kong banking sector to the Middle East are insignificant,” a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said in response to an inquiry from the South China Morning Post.
“The HKMA does not comment on market rumours,” she added, responding to a Bloomberg report earlier this week that said the authority had asked at least two local lenders to review their Middle East exposures amid rising geopolitical tensions.
HSBC and Standard Chartered – two of the three note-issuing banks in the city – have stepped up their presence in the Middle East in recent years to capture growing cross-border trade and wealth management opportunities.
Standard Chartered opened a branch in Saudi Arabia in 2021, adding to its long-established presence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it has operated for more than a century.
HSBC, meanwhile, opened a 24,000 sq ft wealth centre in Dubai in September, its first wealth hub in the Middle East. The facility represents the bank’s largest investment in its premier banking segment in the UAE in two decades, according to HSBC’s local CEO.