ICBC (Asia) enriches its southbound connect products to hail new Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect rules

BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited announced Thursday it raised the eligible products for southbound connect under the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect by 85 percent to hail the new rules for the program, reported Xinhua Finance.

ICBC (Asia) increased related products from 102 ones to 189 ones which cover Hong Kong dollar- and Renminbi-denominated money market funds, greater China-investing stock funds, funds investing in diversified Asian and global assets, funds focusing on different investment fields and time and demand deposits denominated in as many as 11 currencies.

ICBC (Asia) took the move to echo the formal effect-taking on February 26 of the amended implementation rules for the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect launched in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) on September 10, 2021.

Under the pilot scheme, residents in Guangdong are allowed to purchase qualified investment products sold by banks in Hong Kong and Macao and residents in Hong Kong and Macao can gain access to buy qualified investment products offered by banks in nine GBA cities in Guangdong.

Public data showed that ICBC (Asia)'s clients applying for purchasing the southbound connect products under the pilot program surged over 60 percent from November 2023 to January 31 this year and related cross-boundary capital flows were more than quadruple during the period.

Liang Cuier, executive general manager with the retail business and wealth management department of ICBC (Asia) expected the new rules to further unlock the investment and wealth management demands of residents in the GBA and further strengthen the connectivity between the capital markets of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

Alongside Chinese mainland investors' growing demand to diversify their investment, needs for southbound connect products under the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect scheme are ballooning, according to Liang.

Last year, the number of Chinese mainland investors for southbound connect products under the pilot program doubled to 23,800 ones and balances of outstanding southbound connect products grew 11.5 times to 4.87 billion yuan.

(Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)