A term that arises in discussions about banks' and wealth managers' geographic strategy is the "corridor." We talked to BNP Paribas Wealth Management in Hong Kong recently, and delved into how this concept can help shape strategic thinking.

As banks and wealth managers set strategy and work out where to locate people and booking centres, a term that pops up is “corridor.”

This is about linkages usually across national borders – although not always (particularly in large countries such as the US). Corridors shape firms' thinking about how and where to deploy staff and offices. Take just one example. Julius Baer has a team in Zurich that manages relationships with clients from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, and it has offices in cities such as Santiago, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Bogotá and Montevideo. That’s a lot of corridors. 

As this publication knows, trade links that are connected to finance will build certain corridors – the British-Swiss connection (with Swiss firms operating in London and UK firms operating in the Alpine state), being a case in point. Hong Kong has had a longstanding connection with Vancouver in western Canada, as Hong Kongers emigrated there while maintaining links with Hong Kong. Wealth managers can demonstrate to both ends of these corridors what their value proposition is. 

Perhaps the most explicit kind of corridor is “Wealth Connect” – the two-way investment/capital markets system linking mainland China to Hong Kong. Launched half a decade ago, it may be one of the reasons propelling Hong Kong to becoming the largest cross-border financial centre in the world by the end of this decade, according to some organisations. Getting the corridor right can be a powerful boost to business.

Lemuel Lee, head of Wealth Management Hong Kong BNP Paribas Wealth Management, is enthused about the corridor concept.  

“In a traditional sense, a corridor has historically referred to trade routes, which is the flow of goods and services between two countries. In that context, the bank's role is to facilitate that trade through financing, letters of credit, and foreign exchange services for companies,” Lee told WealthBriefingAsia in a recent interview in Hong Kong.

“From a wealth management perspective, this concept is adapted to focus on the individual and their family. For us, a corridor is defined by the significant and strategic cross-border flow of personal capital, or fund flows,” Lee continued. 

“At their origin, these corridors are almost always anchored by links between financial centres where our clients have a pre-existing business or economic footprint. `Business comes before wealth,’ is the very foundation of how we see these relationships develop,” Lee said. “A corridor represents the seamless transition from wealth creation to wealth preservation and growth. For example, our corporate banking team might help an entrepreneur expand their business into Europe. The wealth management corridor comes into play when that entrepreneur has a wealth-creation event, like an IPO or the sale of that business.”

At HSBC Private Bank, the firm’s Global Entrepreneurial Wealth Report 2025 played to the cross-border theme.

The report showed that 59 per cent of those it polled said they were diversifying wealth internationally, more than half (57 per cent) are considering a personal move abroad, and almost half (49 per cent) plan to expand their business into new markets.

The research also shows that some of the biggest corridors of potential inbound and outbound wealth across the 10 markets are between the UK and US. A total of 17 per cent of both UK and US entrepreneurs say they are considering moving some or all of their wealth to the other over the next 12 months. Another HSBC report – Global Wealth Hubs: Drivers of Diversification 2025 – also touched on similar themes.

Back in 2019, Standard Chartered – a UK-listed bank that earns the bulk of its profits in regions such as Asia – spelled out a range of trade corridors – and with potential bank implications. Those corridors are China-Pakistan; New Eurasia Land Bridge; China-Mongolia-Russia; China-Indochina Peninsula; Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar; and China-Central Asia-West Asia.

Such corridors can be seen as a feature of globalisation. The fact that there is a citizenship/residency-by investment – or "golden visa" market –enabling people to choose alternative jurisdictions feeds into this. Expats can form one end of a corridor with their country of origin, and remaining business interests, at the other. 

Cross-border
Such corridors can help shape businesses’ strategy on where to deploy people and other resources, such as hiring bankers fluent in languages and with specific experience to work in one end of a corridor, perhaps sometimes swapping with a colleague to gain experience in the other end. Private banking remains, in some ways, a career that involves travel and a willingness to move around.

Thinking in terms of corridors also helps firms to think about why money moves in a particular geographical direction. 

“Our process doesn't begin with the fund flow itself, but with the life of our client. We start by understanding the 'why’ behind the money's movement,” BNP Paribas’ Lee said. 

To get to grips with the “why,” the bank maps a client's global footprint, it looks at where a client built a business and where they might sell it. “A successful entrepreneur in Asia who sells their company to a European buyer creates a natural wealth corridor as the proceeds are realised,” Lee said. Another question is where the client's wealth is concentrated, and where they see opportunities or the need for stability?

Lifestyle and family circumstances matter, particularly in this era of the “global wealthy.” A choice over where to work, reside and study shapes corridors for funding education, purchasing property, and managing multi-jurisdictional living expenses.

The corridor approach can frame other matters, for example a client can use a conduit to BNP Paribas’ European platforms to use hard-currency investments and hedge against risks in a home market; obtain access to investments, such as venture capital, and manage estate plans that use favourable laws in certain jurisdictions.

“In essence, the corridor is our service map for a client's entire financial life, from the business that created the wealth to the strategies that will preserve and grow it for generations,” Lee said. 

Booking centres
So how does this way of thinking affect booking centres?

Lee reckons that the idea of a client only requiring/using one booking centre is “largely a thing of the past for our most sophisticated HNW and UHNW clients.”

“The dominant trend is multi-shoring, a strategy driven by clients' increasingly globalised lives and astute understanding of the financial landscape. It is entirely dictated by client needs,” he said. 

Clients use different centres for spreading risks between jurisdictions; access to specialist platforms; alignment to specific investments, such as European property, and estate planning.

“We frequently see clients booking assets at both ends of a corridor that mirror their personal or business footprint. A client with deep connections between the Middle East and Asia, for example, will very often maintain booking relationships in both Switzerland or Luxembourg – a popular destination for UAE clients –and Hong Kong or Singapore,” Lee said.

To open or close?
"There is no single formula; the decision to invest in, establish, or consolidate a booking centre is a multi-faceted and highly strategic one. This actually gets to the heart of our global strategy. Each booking centre has distinct advantages, and our goal is to build a global network where these advantages complement each other to serve the holistic needs of our clients," Lee said. 

“Regarding consolidation or closing a centre, that is a decision we would never take lightly. It would only be considered if client needs have fundamentally shifted over the long term and we are confident that we can serve them more effectively and efficiently through a different combination of our global platforms, reinvesting those resources into our strategic growth corridors,” Lee said. 

There’s a compliance angle.

“Our guiding principle is: 'Are we properly licensed and structured to serve our clients where they are, and where they are going?’” Lee said. “Regulatory similarity is a 'nice to have,’ but having the right licences to serve our clients is the 'must have’. Our 'One Bank’ model is the engine that allows us to manage diverse regulatory regimes effectively, ensuring compliance while delivering a simple, unified experience for the client.”