Cross-border Wealth Management Connect expanded in GBA

Residents of the nine Guangdong cities within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can purchase financial products from Hong Kong and Macao through securities firms, and vice versa, starting Dec. 4 when the Cross-border Wealth Management Connect in the GBA initiative was officially expanded to include certain higher-risk fund products.

Originally launched in September 2021, the Cross-border Wealth Management Connect initiative allows eligible residents in the GBA to invest in wealth management products offered by the counterpart’s banks through their respective banking systems, thereby establishing a closed-loop capital channel. This initiative is one of the important moves towards the establishment of an “interconnection and intercommunication” mechanism between the capital markets of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and Macao.

On the first day of the expanded initiative, CITIC Bank (International) completed the first overseas settlement transaction for its Hong Kong clients participating in the pilot program.

The Huatai "Cross-Border Wealth Management Connect" business also went online the same day. Investors in the GBA can use the closed-loop capital channel established by Huatai Securities and Huatai Financial Holdings to invest in eligible cross-border investment products sold by each other. The initial product pools includes hundreds of public funds and bond products with varying risk levels, covering multiple currencies such as RMB, HKD, and USD. 

Data shows that over 120,000 individual investors have engaged with the expanded Cross-Border Wealth Management Connect program, including more than 50,000 Hong Kong and Macao investors. Mainland banks have sold cross-border capital products exceeding 95 billion yuan (US$13 billion) through management practices.