Speech by SFST at Inauguration Ceremony of HKU Business School's Wealth Management Academy
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, at the Inauguration Ceremony of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Business School's Wealth Management Academy today (September 8):
Professor Cai (Dean and Chair of Economics of the HKU Business School, Professor Cai Hongbin), Professor Wong (Director of the Wealth Management Academy, HKU Business School, Professor Anna Wong), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure of mine to join you for the inauguration of HKU Business School's Wealth Management Academy. I congratulate Professor Cai, Professor Wong and everyone who has helped bring this initiative to life.
In her invitation to me for joining this inauguration by Professor Wong, she spoke of "connecting the dots": bringing students, academics and practitioners together to strengthen Hong Kong's position as a wealth management hub. That is very fitting as an ambition for an academy, and also a timely one for Hong Kong. Our next chapter will depend on how well we connect the strengths we already possess.
That's why for today, apart from myself, Joseph (Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Joseph Chan) is also here. Normally, either one of us will be in an event. It's not that we have nothing else to do but rather you can see from our presence the importance that we attach to this academy.
The panel later today, which Joseph will attend, asks what comes after being number one. Hong Kong's emergence as the world's largest cross-boundary wealth management centre is an achievement in which we can all take pride. It tells us how far we have come. It does not, however by itself, tell us where we should go next.
The more important question is, what kind of leadership do we want that position to represent. Just now, Professor Cai gave me three dimensions. As a very diligent student, I also try to follow his feet. So I am going to set out three priorities which are about earning trust, developing talent, and helping wealth serve a lasting purpose. Together, they can turn financial scale into enduring strength.
Earning trust
First of all, we must keep learning and earning the trust on which our success rests. Wealth management is a long-term promise: to understand a client's needs and safeguard their interests through changing circumstances. Families plan across generations. They need a financial centre that takes the long view as seriously as they do.
As of end last year, Hong Kong's asset and wealth management business reached approximately $42.2 trillion. Behind that figure are decisions about retirement, the future of businesses, and the opportunities one generation hopes to provide for the next. Our responsibility is to remain worthy of those decisions.
Hong Kong's rule of law, open markets and free flow of capital provide essential foundations. Our connections with the Mainland and the wider world give us a distinctive role. The Government's task is to strengthen those foundations while ensuring that our framework keeps pace with investors' needs.
Consider the enhancements to strengthen connectivity between the Mainland and Hong Kong markets. A series of measures will further expand mutual market access and connectivity, for example the inclusion of REITs (real estate investment trusts) under Stock Connect, and enhancing the arrangements for mutual recognition of funds, which we call MRF. These measures will further bolster Hong Kong's position as an asset and wealth management hub. Connectivity matters most when it expands meaningful investment choice.
We have also introduced legislative proposals to enhance the preferential tax regimes for funds, single family offices and carried interest. Subject to the Legislative Council's approval, these would broaden the range of qualifying investments, including private credit, digital assets and precious metals, etc. Wider choice must go hand in hand with clear explanations of risk and sound professional judgement.
Yet policy can only take us so far. Trust is also earned in the everyday conduct of our industry: in recognising a client's changing needs, managing conflicts honestly, and giving advice that serves the client beyond the next transaction. That is where the strength of a financial centre becomes personal.
Developing talent
This brings me to my second priority: developing people with the judgement to carry that trust. For wealth management, the quality of human capital ultimately determines how well financial capital is managed.
A family's needs rarely fit neatly into one professional discipline. An investment decision may also involve succession, governance, different jurisdictions and deeply held personal values. Technical expertise is indispensable, but so are the ability to listen, the confidence to question an assumption, and the integrity to advise against an unsuitable course.
As technology gives us more powerful tools, we should also ask ourselves more of professional judgement, not less. An AI model may help us compare portfolios. It cannot, by itself however, resolve a family's disagreement about what its wealth is for, or take responsibility for the advice a client receives.
This is why this new Academy's role is so important. By connecting university research with professional practice, it can help students understand the decisions behind the textbook, and help practitioners test familiar assumptions against fresh evidence.
I hope this exchange will work in both directions. Industry can bring difficult, real-world questions into the university, and researchers can test them with independence and rigour. As a policymaker, I would welcome research that helps us remove unnecessary barriers without weakening essential safeguards.
Our establishment of the Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy a few years back under the Financial Services Development Council reflects a related commitment to knowledge exchange and talent development for practitioners and also next-generation wealth owners. HKU's new Academy brings a distinct university contribution to this wider endeavour. There is much to be gained from institutions building on one another's strengths.
To the industry leaders here today, I would offer a practical invitation: bring your experience into HKU's Academy's work. Mentor a student, contribute a case study, or help frame a research question. A young professional's first encounter with sound judgement may shape an entire career.
Giving wealth lasting purpose
Last but not least when it comes to the third priority, it is about the purpose that expertise should serve. Preserving wealth matters, but so does preparing the next generation to use it wisely.
For a family, a successful transition is more than the transfer of ownership. It is about passing on the capacity to make decisions, to resolve differences and to accept responsibility. A carefully constructed portfolio cannot substitute for those capabilities.
Hong Kong is home to more than 3 380 single family offices at the end of last year. It’s not something said by me but an independent survey. Our ambition is to be a place where such families can build lasting relationships and contribute to the life and future of our city. Our Invest Hong Kong's dedicated FamilyOfficeHK team provides one-stop support to help them establish that presence.
The name of our Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit, our annual flagship event for global family offices, expresses a wider ambition. Wealth can support enterprise, scientific discovery, education, arts and culture, and the transition towards a more sustainable economy. When families choose to pursue these goals, they need sound advice and credible ways to understand the results.
Here, too, an academy can make a valuable contribution. It can help bring the same discipline to discussions of purpose: asking what a family hopes to achieve, what evidence would demonstrate progress, and how its commitments can endure.
For Hong Kong, this is an opportunity to deepen the contribution of finance to society. The benefits of a thriving wealth management sector should reach beyond the assets it manages, through skilled careers, investment in enterprise and support for our communities.
Closing
An inauguration is an occasion to look ahead. We should ask what people will be able to do better because this Academy exists.
If the students who are going to be inspired become advisers worthy of trust, if its research improves decisions, and if its partnerships help wealth create lasting value, its contribution will be felt far beyond this room. That, to me, is a compelling answer to "what comes next?".
So let us return to Professor Wong's invitation to me and Joseph to connect the dots. Let us build a Hong Kong where capital finds opportunity, knowledge strengthens judgement, and success carries responsibility.
I wish the Wealth Management Academy every success, and very much look forward to the connections, ideas and people it will bring together under the leadership of Professor Cai, Professor Wong and many others. Thank you.
Speech by SFST at Inauguration Ceremony of HKU Business School's Wealth Management Academy Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
