A vast majority of private banking institutions in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remain optimistic about the industry’s near-term outlook, with many identifying initiatives related to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as vital to business growth, according to a recent industry survey.

The Hong Kong Private Wealth Management Report 2026, co-authored by the local Private Wealth Management Association (PWMA) and KPMG China, was released on Thursday. It is based on interviews conducted between June and August with 35 PWMA institution members and 17 asset managers.

The report found that 94 percent of surveyed private banking firms were “moderately or highly optimistic” about the market prospects over the next five years. Meanwhile, 77 percent reported increased demand for new accounts and asset booking in the city, up from 59 percent last year.

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About 80 percent of the respondents said that the Greater Bay Area would be “critical or modestly important” to their offshore Hong Kong businesses over the next five years.

The report also highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in private wealth management, with 88 percent of respondents reporting progress in applying various AI technologies, up from 56 percent a year earlier.

The report was presented at the PWMA Wealth Management Summit 2026 on Thursday. The event brought together senior executives, regulators, industry professionals, and family office leaders around the world.

Addressing the event, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told participants: “Your next client will be more international and entrepreneurial, more likely to be younger, with women increasing in number, and looking for both returns and purpose.”

He added: “As higher rates and greater uncertainty are redrawing the map of capital, investors are diversifying across markets and currencies, and Hong Kong is a clear beneficiary of capital inflow.”

Assets under management by Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management industry grew 20 percent year-on-year to over HK$42 trillion ($5.35 trillion), according to a Securities and Futures Commission survey released in July. Boston Consulting Group, which named Hong Kong the world’s largest cross-border wealth management center in May, projected that the city’s cross-border wealth will grow by around 9 percent annually through 2030.

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SFC Chairman Kevin Wong Tin-yau said the future of private wealth management rests not on technology alone but also on human judgment. “Our task is not to choose between technology and humanity but to bring the best of both together,” he said.

“Technology gives us scale. Judgment gives us direction. Trust gives us confidence,” he added, emphasizing that private wealth management is about “managing people’s confidence in decisions that affect their future”.

At one panel, speakers agreed that Hong Kong has a new role to play in Asia’s private-wealth management industry, as modern wealthy families become increasingly international, entrepreneurial and multigenerational.

“Families actually change their expectations of products. They are no longer expecting us only to focus on the investment portfolio. They want us to understand what it means in the business, the families, the wealth transfer, and succession,” said Kanas Chan, head of North Asia and Hong Kong at HSBC Global Private Bank.

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Horace Yip, head of Hong Kong at Citi Private Bank, said that private-wealth management practitioners have to upgrade their knowledge about wealth creators, and learn how to connect their clients with different parts of the business. “We need to speak the same language as the wealth creators in this current landscape.”

Diao Zhihai, international business head of wealth management at China International Capital Corp, said, “While wealth protection, global asset allocation and multijurisdiction tax planning remain essential, family expectations shift from passive wealth preservation to strategic capital orchestration and cross-border expansion.”

Diao added that scale in wealth management is just a baseline. “Hong Kong should not only be the transition point for capital, but also a hub where capital, industry and family can connect,” he said.

David Shick, Hong Kong branch manager at Bank Julius Baer & Co, said that people-to-people connectivity is fundamentally driving the advantage of Hong Kong. “There are very few cities or financial centers that can replicate this.”

Contact the writers at oswald@chinadailyhk.com