DBS Adds Another Wealth Connect Alliance

Editorial Staff

12 May 2022

[tag|DBS Bank (Hong Kong)|]DBS Bank (Hong Kong) have partnered to provide Greater Bay Area mainland investors with Wealth Management Connect Southbound services. DBS said it is the only bank with three Southbound partners under the WMC scheme

Southbound customers banking with DBS Bank (Hong Kong) can use digital account opening services at any time or location. Upon submitting their Southbound account application form via the DBS digibank HK app, customers can use WMC Southbound services once their accounts are verified, DBS said in a statement earlier this week.

The move comes as banks and other financial institutions continue to plug into the Connect structure that went live in 2021. The financial regime binds financial markets together in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.

As SRCB’s largest shareholder, DBS has been using its Asian network and wealth management expertise to enhance SRCB’s service capability in its wealth management business. Meanwhile, DBS Bank (Hong Kong) will accelerate its expansion into the GBA via SRCB’s local network.

Since the scheme’s launch last October, more than 80 per cent of DBS’s Southbound service clients are completely new customers to DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

The development of this programme is similar to the Stock Exchange schemes arranged between Hong Kong and the mainland which were launched a few years ago in a bid to boost local equity markets. It also follows the Hong Kong/China Mutual Recognition scheme that came into force in 2015.

The move also comes at a time when Beijing has been liberalising its capital markets to encourage foreign investment inflows. There are also parallels with other regions’ moves to integrate financial markets. For example, the European Union’s UCITS regime for funds enables investors to buy and sell funds across the EU without having to register them separately in each jurisdiction. (The UK’s departure from the EU has, however, created additional steps that UK-based fund managers must take to tap into the market.)