Hong Kong should go after money that stays put, not cash that flees at the first wobble, the Financial Services Development Council said on Wednesday, in a push to tighten the city's hold as Asia's wealth-management hub.

The council has set out ways in a new report to attract this “patient capital” from pension funds and insurers at home, on the mainland and overseas.

The council's Vice-Chairman, Ding Chen, said the report aims to turn Hong Kong into a long-term capital hub.

"The central objective of this report is to make Hong Kong not only a place where capital is raised, and traded, but also place where capital is managed, invested, and reinvested over a longer period of time," she said.

The report says there should be more products investors can buy, including bonds and a wider range of stocks, with tighter risk controls.

It also calls for more cross-border channels, especially for pensions and insurance.

Rocky Tung, the council's executive director, said this stickier money could be "the stabilising force" amid market swings, which supports new financial products and backs growth that lasts.

"There is a lot of investment coming in and out of a market or an economy, and they are here only for the short run," he said.

"And with that in mind, if there is anything less than ideal, they would pull the money out of the market and subsequently the economy. So that will create a lot of turbulence and it will exaggerate the economic cycle.

"With patient capital, they have the mindset of a long-term vision, they are going to be the stabilising force."

The report noted that mainland insurers held 41.3 trillion yuan in assets at the end of last year, but only 5.4 percent of that is invested outside the mainland — well below the 15 percent they are allowed.

Mainland pension savings stood at 15.66 trillion yuan in 2024.

The report said that as populations age, demand for more diversified cross-border investment and a better match between assets and long-term liabilities would bring unprecedented growth opportunities for Hong Kong's patient capital.




Edited by Tony Sabine