News
SFC Press Release - Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management business reached $23,955 billion in 2018
27 Jul 2019The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released a report on 26 July 2019 on its annual Asset and Wealth Management Activities Survey (AWMAS), which found that the assets under management (AUM) of the asset and wealth management business (Note 1) in Hong Kong amounted to $23,955 billion (US$3,059 billion) (Notes 2 and 3) as at 31 December 2018.
The scope of this year’s AWMAS was extended to cover the assets held by firms providing trust services in Hong Kong (trustees) to provide a more comprehensive overview of the asset and wealth management industry in Hong Kong.
"The latest survey shows the underlying strengths of the asset and wealth management industry in a challenging global market environment in 2018. We will continue to pursue initiatives to further develop Hong Kong as a premier global asset and wealth management centre," said Mr Ashley Alder, the SFC’s Chief Executive Officer.
Highlights of the survey include:
- Net fund inflows of $783 billion (US$100 billion) were recorded in 2018 despite a 5% year-on-year dip (Note 4) in the adjusted AUM of the asset and wealth management business to $23,047 billion (US$2,943 billion) at a time when leading Asia-Pacific equity markets experienced more substantial corrections amidst global market volatility (Note 5).
- The AUM of the asset management and fund advisory business conducted by licensed corporations (LCs) and registered institutions (RIs) decreased by 6% (Note 6) to $16,447 billion (US$2,100 billion).
- The AUM of the private banking and private wealth management business decreased slightly by 2% (Note 7) to $7,624 billion (US$973 billion).
- Assets held under trusts amounted to $4,333 billion (US$553 billion) (Note 8).
- Non-Hong Kong investors remained a major source of funding for the asset and wealth management business, accounting for 62% of the AUM.
- Assets managed in Hong Kong made up 55% of the AUM of the asset management business, with 50% of these assets invested in equities.
- The total number of staff in the asset and wealth management business was 42,821, with a growing proportion of staff engaged outside of sales and marketing activities.
AWMAS is an annual exercise to help the SFC assess the state of the industry for policy and operational planning. This year, a total of 854 firms responded to the survey on a voluntary basis. They included 747 licensed corporations, 45 registered institutions, 35 insurance companies and 27 trustees (Note 9).
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Notes:
1. Asset and wealth management business comprises asset management, fund advisory, private banking and private wealth management, SFC-authorised real estate investment trusts and assets held under trusts. Highlights of the survey are included in Appendix.
2. Unless stated otherwise, the values given are in Hong Kong dollars, and all comparisons are made on a year-on-year basis (ie, 2017 versus 2018).
3. Due to the extension of the scope of AWMAS, comparative figures are not available.
4. Year-on-year change in the AUM of the asset and wealth management business between December 2017 and December 2018, adjusted to exclude assets held under trusts attributable to non-licensed corporations and registered institutions due to the extension of the survey scope.
5. Year-on-year changes in 2018: MSCI World Index (USD) (-10.4%); MSCI AC Asia Index (USD) (-15.6%); FTSE Developed Asia Pacific ex Japan Total Return Index (USD) (-14.0 %); Hang Seng Index (-13.6%); Shanghai Composite Index (-24.6%); and Shenzhen Composite Index (-33.2%).
6. See Note 5.
7. See Note 5.
8. See Note 3.
9. Respondents fall into four categories:
(i) asset management and fund advisory companies licensed under section 116 or 117 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO);
(ii) registered institutions under section 119 of the SFO, which are authorised financial institutions as defined in section 2(1) of the Banking Ordinance;
(iii) insurance companies registered under the Insurance Ordinance providing services that constitute classes of long-term business as defined in Part 2 of the First Schedule of the Insurance Ordinance and are not licensed by the SFC; and
(iv) trustees.