Singapore Is 17 Years Behind Hong Kong as Wealth Hub

Singpore’s household wealth growth outpaces HK in recent years.

Hong Kong is set to become world’s largest cross-border hub.

Hong Kong’s Cross-Border Wealth

Hong Kong will probably become the world’s largest cross-border financial center in 2023, overtaking Switzerland, Wong forecasts based on data from the Boston Consulting Group. Assets booked in Hong Kong by non-residents amounted to $2.3 trillion in 2021, compared with $1.5 trillion in Singapore.

Singapore has an edge in attracting clients worried about China-US tension and Hong Kong’s national security law. But Hong Kong has Beijing’s support when it comes to wealth flows to and from the mainland via established financial infrastructure for the trading of assets such as stocks and bonds, as well as for wealth management.

The increasing affluence of China’s population and capital-market sophistication may help drive global wealth despite near-term economic headwinds, which together with tighter capital controls might lead to inflows to cross-border centers, Wong said.

“China’s growing mass-affluent segment could fuel wealth-management business, while its common-prosperity push might weigh more heavily on the ultra-high net-worth segment,” the analyst said.