Foreign investors 'not likely to pack and go'

Foreign firms are unlikely to move their investments out of the mainland and Hong Kong back to the United States, despite signs of an economic recovery in the US, a senior banker says.

It is difficult for the firms to just "pack and go", since they have spent a great deal on infrastructure for long-term development in Asia, said Sohfern Boey, the managing director and head of global transaction services at DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

"We don't see capital going back to the West," she said.

Boey's division looks after trade flows and manages cash for companies. It collects deposits, transfers money, processes transactions and provides trade finance and other forms of secured lending.

Global transaction services, which Boey described as the bank's "bread and butter" business, has contributed a third of the revenue of the wholesale bank at DBS in Hong Kong for many years, regardless of market volatility.

"You may regard the income from investment banking as the bonus, and the income from our department as the basic salary," Boey said.

In the wake of the financial crisis, commercial banks have kept a closer eye on transaction banking, which offers a relatively stable income, and competition has intensified as a result.