The HSBC Holdings Plc headquarters building, center, stands illuminated at dusk in Hong Kong, China, April 27, 2020. (ROY LIU / BLOOMBERG)

HSBC Holdings Plc pledged to boost investments in the Chinese mainland to capture more wealth and retail clients.

The mainland’s rapidly growing middle and upper class is still the grand prize for banking giants across the world, with households sitting on about 90 trillion yuan (US$12.7 trillion) in investable assets

The bank on Friday announced it was starting a new service to provide customers in the mainland with digital wealth and insurance planning services. It will initially cover new customers in Guangzhou and Shanghai, according to a statement. The bank is also establishing a fintech company to support its business.

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The mainland’s rapidly growing middle and upper class is still the grand prize for banking giants across the world, with households sitting on about 90 trillion yuan (US$12.7 trillion) in investable assets. Firms from UBS Group AG to Nomura Holdings Inc and Credit Suisse Group AG have identified wealth management as a prime focus for their onshore businesses amid a market opening.

“These new investments mark HSBC’s continued efforts to capture high-growth opportunities in Asia, particularly in mainland China, the region’s biggest wealth pool and one of the world’s largest insurance markets,” said Greg Hingston, HSBC’s head of wealth and personal banking in Asia-Pacific, said in the statement.

Regulators including the People’s Bank of China announced in June the kick off of a long anticipated program called Wealth Management Connect, which will allow residents in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macau Special Administrative Region and the southern Chinese mainland to invest across the border.

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HSBC’s push for wealthy clients dovetails with Chief Executive Noel Quinn’s plan to deploy more resources into Asia as the group cuts jobs and underperforming businesses in Europe and the US as part of a massive overhaul.

In a statement on its official WeChat account last month, the London-based bank pledged to continue to invest and support the mainland’s economy after the local media reported that its layoff plan means that HSBC may put an end to its mainland business.

Earlier this year, HSBC combined its retail banking and wealth management, and private banking businesses with US$1.3 trillion in assets. Its private banking unit said in March that it targets to triple the number of billionaire clients in the mainland in the next three years.

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