HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (HK) among 19 lenders approved to sell Wealth Management Connect products

Each investor can only trade up to 1 million yuan (US$155,000) on a net remittance basis

HKMA allows 16 banks to sell products in Hong Kong and the mainland, while three can only sell to Greater Bay Area residents via the southbound route

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Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered are among the 19 banks that have received approval from the HKMA to sell wealth management products to mainland residents. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:45pm, 18 Oct 2021Updated: 8:53am, 19 Oct 2021

HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong) – the city’s three note-issuing banks – are among the 19 Hong Kong lenders that received the greenlight to sell investment products under the Wealth Management Connect scheme in the Greater Bay Area from Tuesday.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Monday said 16 banks can sell products in Hong Kong and the mainland, while three banks can only sell products to mainland residents via the southbound route.

The launch of the cross-border Wealth Management Connect on September 10 – Beijing’s first scheme tailor-made for the 11 cities of the Greater Bay Area – marks a further opening up of China’s capital market. The scheme has an initial quota of 300 billion yuan (US$46.5 billion) in fund flows in both directions, but each investor is only allowed to trade up to 1 million yuan on a net remittance basis.

While the scheme was announced last month, the HKMA granted approval to sell products from Tuesday following tests of the banks’ internal controls and systems readiness.

“Considering that it will be the first time for retail investors to conduct cross-boundary investments, we will closely monitor the operation of the cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect and step up investor education and investor protection work together with the industry,” HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man said in a statement.

Apart from the three note-issuing banks, some of the other lenders include Citibank (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, OCBC Wing Hang Bank and Nanyang Commercial Bank as well as the Hong Kong subsidiaries of the mainland’s biggest banks, such as ICBC (Asia), Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) and China Construction Bank (Asia).

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