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China loosens rules on fund flows between Greater Bay Area cities, in a partial relaxation of capital controls
- Wealth Management Connect will encourage big players such as UBS, HSBC and other private banks and fund houses to increase investment in Hong Kong
- Bay area has high number of wealthy people, including China’s richest man Pony Ma, who is founder of Tencent Holdings
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China’s government will loosen the rules on two-way fund flows between nine cities in the nation’s southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau, taking a tentative step toward partial relaxation of its capital controls.
The new plan, dubbed Wealth Management Connect, will allow residents of Hong Kong and Macau to buy wealth management products sold by mainland Chinese banks located throughout the Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Residents of the nine Guangdong provincial cities in the GBA can tap wealth products sold by financial institutions in Hong Kong and Macau, according to a joint statement by the monetary authorities of the three jurisdictions, without giving other details.
The launch, two days before Hong Kong marks the 23rd anniversary of the return of its sovereignty to China, comes as the Chinese legislature is poised to enact a new national security law in the city to put a lid on more than a year of anti-government protests that helped drive the local economy into its worst recession on record.
The partial liberalisation of China’s capital control could also act as a buffer against the sanctions and censures adopted by the United States and European Union against China’s enactment of the security law, as it cements the role of Hong Kong – the largest financial market, and second-biggest economy – in the 11 cities that make up the GBA.
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