The asset and wealth management industry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reaped another plentiful harvest in 2025 as the level of assets under management (AUM) soared to a record high, driven by net fund inflows, global investor confidence, market innovation, and a talent pool.
The AUM of the city’s asset and wealth management industry last year jumped 20 percent year-on-year to a record high of HK$42.2 trillion ($5.4 trillion), according to the Securities and Futures Commission's (SFC) Asset and Wealth Management Activities Survey 2025 published on Thursday.
The record AUM, which surpassed the previous peak of HK$35.5 trillion in 2021, was partly driven by net fund inflow surge of 193 percent YoY to HK$2.1 trillion, marking a third consecutive year of growth.
Among the major segments, the AUM of the ‘asset management and fund advisory business’ recorded a 19 percent annual growth to HK$30.9 trillion; that of ‘private banking and private wealth management business’ posted an annual expansion of 24 percent to HK$12.9 trillion; and that of ‘assets held under trusts’ also increased 8 percent to HK$6.2 trillion from a year ago.
The net asset value of Hong Kong-domiciled funds soared 38 percent to HK$2.3 trillion in 2025. This momentum continued into 2026 with a further 13 percent increase to HK$2.6 trillion as at the end of May. Net fund inflows into these funds more than doubled to HK$357 billion last year, followed by HK$118 billion in the first five months of this year.
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The SFC’s survey results chimed with the findings from Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth Report 2026 released in May, which identified Hong Kong as the world’s largest cross-border wealth center in 2025, with $2.9 trillion in cross-border wealth.
The SFC said the strong growth was underpinned by Hong Kong’s geographically diversified and predominantly institution-oriented investor base. Investors from outside the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have accounted for more than 54 percent of total AUM in recent years while they invested 56 percent of AUM outside the mainland and Hong Kong in 2025.
The SFC said that it remains committed to continued regulatory enhancements to foster Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a premier international financial center and a leading offshore renminbi hub.
Responding to the latest SFC figure on the social media post, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said Hong Kong's dual advantages as a "safe haven for capital" and a "hub of opportunities" are becoming increasingly prominent amid a complex and volatile global geopolitical landscape.
The free flow of capital, people, information, and goods under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, and the Hong Kong SAR government's stable and predictable economic and trade policies are the anchor for international investors to build confidence, Chan said.
“With the continuous expansion of the connotation of the financial market connectivity mechanism, Hong Kong's position as an international asset and wealth management center will be enhanced with more financial product innovation, and strengthening market depth, breadth and efficiency can facilitate the efficient connection between Chinese opportunities and international capital,” he added.
As the mainland boasts the world's largest cluster of innovations and is leading the world in fields such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, empathic intelligence, green energy, and aerospace, it will cement Hong Kong as the optimal entry point for international funds to allocate investments in the mainland and capitalize on its development opportunities, said the finance chief.
