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BREAKING NEWS: Hong Kong has overtaken Switzerland to become the world’s favorite banking hub for the rich, it was revealed last night.
The Swiss have been the world’s top cash deposit center for 150 years--but no more.
The Chinese city took US$2.95 trillion of international assets in 2025, slightly ahead of Switzerland’s US$2.94 trillion—but the signs show that Hong Kong’s lead is set to widen.
The data comes from a study of cross-border cash, released yesterday by the Boston Consulting Group.
Hong Kong’s new role as number one global wealth hub will widen to place it almost US$600 billion ahead of Switzerland in less than four years.
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EAST ASIA IS GETTING RICHER
“This is a completely new phenomenon. I haven’t seen anything like it,” Swiss money-manager Michael Pellman Rowland told the Financial Times.
About 60 per cent of the cash entering Hong Kong comes from China’s role as a successful factory of the world, and from Chinese companies raising funding offshore.
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HEDGING THEIR BETS
Another stream comes from around the planet, “with clients seeking to spread their assets across multiple jurisdictions to hedge against geopolitical tensions, sanctions risks and political instability”, the Financial Times said.
Rich people everywhere are spreading their cash to hedge their bets. US-led western expansionism means there are conflicts in West Asia (Iran, Lebanon, Israel, the Gulf states), in Europe (Ukraine), and in Central/ South America (Venezuela, Cuba).
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SMALLER RIVALS
Hong Kong’s smaller rival as a destination for safe-haven cash is Singapore.
But the city-state has “seen growth moderate after high-profile money laundering cases triggered a regulatory crackdown and tougher scrutiny of wealthy foreign clients” the Financial Times said.
Dubai has also been growing as a wealth deposit center, but lags far behind – it was US$721 billion last year, a quarter of Hong Kong’s total.
And that was before its role in the disastrous US-Israel attack on Iran.
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BAD NEWS FOR THE WORLD
This is good news for China, but there’s also bad news in the report.
It says that an increasing proportion of the world’s cash is going to the ten main “booking centers” across the world for international deposits.
In other words, the rich are getting richer. The era of unbridled capitalism is not making the world a fairer place.
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