Financial firms in Hong Kong managed a record HK$42.2 trillion, equivalent to US$5.38 trillion, in assets last year, the city’s Securities and Futures Commission said on Thursday, July 2. The figure represents a 20% increase from the previous peak of HK$35.5 trillion recorded in 2024, according to the SFC’s annual asset and wealth management activities survey. The surge was driven by a near-tripling of net fund inflows, which reached more than HK$2 trillion in 2025, a 193% increase year on year.
The result confirms Hong Kong’s position as the world’s top cross-border wealth hub ahead of Switzerland, following a late-May report from Boston Consulting Group that found Hong Kong had overtaken its Swiss rival in 2025, according to the South China Morning Post. The SFC attributed the performance to renewed global investor confidence in Chinese markets, market innovation and the growth of Hong Kong’s financial talent pool.
“Looking ahead, the SFC remains committed to continued regulatory enhancements to foster Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a premier international financial centre and a leading offshore renminbi hub,” Elisa Ng, the SFC’s executive director of investment products, said in a statement.
The record AUM figure reflects a broad-based surge across Hong Kong’s financial industry that gathered pace throughout 2025. Capital allocated to mainland Chinese assets rose 30% over the year, helping to drive strong gains in equity markets. The Hang Seng Index rallied 25% through 2025 to rank among the world’s best-performing stock benchmarks, according to the SCMP. A tech-led rally, partly triggered by the release of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s R1 model in January 2025, drove substantial inflows into the Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese technology companies.
The private banking and private wealth management segment performed strongly, with assets under management rising 15% to HK$10.4 trillion in 2024, the most recent year for which comparable sub-segment data is available, according to a Finance Magnates account of an earlier SFC survey. Inflows for the asset management and fund advisory business soared 571% to HK$321 billion in that same period. The number of firms licensed to carry out asset management in Hong Kong rose 4% to 2,212 by the end of 2024, pointing to sustained institutional interest in the city.
The SFC’s 2025/26 annual report, released on June 24, provided additional context on the breadth of the market’s expansion. Average daily turnover in the secondary equity market jumped 54% year on year to HK$258 billion, the highest on record, according to the SFC. Initial public offerings raised HK$379 billion, a 272% increase from the prior year, as Hong Kong ranked as the world’s top IPO market in the first half of 2025. Hong Kong-domiciled funds recorded net inflows pushing assets under management 19.4% higher to HK$2.3 trillion.
Digital assets formed a fast-growing part of the picture. SFC-authorised retail tokenised products saw assets under management climb nearly sixfold to HK$10.8 billion as of March 2026. The combined market value of 11 spot virtual-asset exchange-traded funds grew 90% since their debut in 2024. Trading volumes across 12 licensed virtual-asset platforms rose 125%, according to the SFC annual report.
Stock Connect, the programme linking Hong Kong’s exchange with mainland bourses, remained a structural driver of flows. Southbound daily turnover jumped 84% year on year to HK$124.1 billion and accounted for a record 24% of Hong Kong’s overall market turnover, according to the SFC. Cumulative northbound inflows to mainland stocks since the programme’s launch have reached RMB1.47 trillion.
Regional and global impact
Hong Kong’s rise to the top of the cross-border wealth rankings carries strategic implications for the city’s role in global finance and for Beijing’s ambitions to internationalise the renminbi. As the world’s primary offshore renminbi centre, Hong Kong channels foreign capital into mainland China and allows Chinese investors to access international markets through a controlled gateway. Mainland-related firms continued to expand their presence in the city, with their combined AUM rising 15% to HK$3.1 trillion and net inflows up 68%, outperforming the broader industry for the fifth consecutive year, according to Finance Magnates.
The results come as Hong Kong navigates persistent concerns about its long-term appeal to international financial institutions following changes to its legal and political framework since 2020. The record AUM figures suggest that financial capital has continued to flow into the city despite those concerns, driven by the scale of investment opportunities tied to China’s economy and the lack of comparable access points elsewhere.
Background
Hong Kong has operated as Asia’s leading international financial centre since the 1970s and serves as the primary conduit for foreign capital entering mainland China. Its linked exchange rate system ties the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar within a narrow band, providing currency stability that has made it attractive to international asset managers. The SFC introduced a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms in June 2023 under a “same business, same risks, same rules” approach, positioning Hong Kong as one of the world’s most comprehensively regulated digital asset markets. As of February 2026, twelve entities had received virtual asset trading platform licences, with further applications under review.
What happens next
The SFC said it is working with the government to complete four new regulatory regimes covering virtual asset trading, custody, advisory and discretionary management, with formal legislative proposals for dealing and custodian services licensing expected to be introduced to the Legislative Council in 2026. The commission said it remains focused on further regulatory enhancements to cement Hong Kong’s position as a leading offshore renminbi hub. No date has been set for the next SFC asset and wealth management activities survey, which typically covers the previous calendar year and is published in the second half of the following year.
