In this July 25, 2019 photo, a skyline featuring financial buildings including the headquarters of HSBC are seen in Hong Kong. (PAUL YEUNG / BLOOMBERG)
Hong Kong’s leading virtual bank, ZA Bank, is launching a range of investment funds from global asset management companies – a potentially profitable venture for the lender.
Wealth management products are the next frontier for the special administrative region’s eight licensed virtual banks, offering them a comparative advantage, particularly because of their digital customer interface. Income from fees is seen as a source of growth for these banks
Wealth management products are the next frontier for the special administrative region’s eight licensed virtual banks, offering them a comparative advantage, particularly because of their digital customer interface. Income from fees is seen as a source of growth for these banks.
Based on subscriptions on the ZA Bank platform, one of the top-selling funds in the past three months has been Franklin Technology Fund. The Hong Kong-dollar fund by Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) invests in equity securities of technology companies. The fund’s top three holdings are Microsoft (6.9 percent), Apple (5.3 percent) and Amazon.com Inc (4.7 percent).
The fund has a maximum sales charge of 5 percent and an annual charge of 1.50 percent, and is domiciled in Luxembourg. The annualized performance at the end of June this year was -36.45 percent.
ZA Bank said it’s waiving subscriptions fees for the funds on offer until the end of September.
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ZA Bank Chief Executive Officer Rockson Hsu said the bank’s services have now entered the “investment space’’ after launching insurance services last year. As a “game changer” in the banking sector, he said ZA Bank aims to “redefine’’ investment fund experiences by making it easier and more autonomous for people to invest. ZA Bank offers digital banking, investment and insurance services.
Based on data as of December 31 last year, ZA Bank is Hong Kong’s leading virtual bank, serving more than 500,000 customers.
A consultancy has estimated that by 2025, about 24.9 percent of Hong Kong residents are likely to have a virtual bank account.