Hong Kong’s wooing of family offices yields ‘robust’ interest from Southeast Asia, Middle East: top Citi banker
- ‘Hong Kong is doing many of the right things to showcase that it is back after the pandemic,’ says Ida Liu, global head of Citi Private Bank
- US-based Citigroup’s private bank serves over 1,600 family offices worldwide, with each having a net worth greater than US$3 billion
The government’s effort to increase the number of family offices operating in Hong Kong is generating sustained interest, as wealthy clients from around Asia and beyond consider the city as a base to capture opportunities in the region’s fast-growing markets, according to a top boss of Citigroup.
“I continue to see a fair amount of interest in family office set-ups in Hong Kong,” said Ida Liu, global head of Citi Private Bank. “They are not only from mainland China, but from Southeast Asia and even other parts of the world such as the Middle East and Europe.”
US-based Citigroup’s private bank serves over 1,600 family offices worldwide, with each having a net worth greater than US$3 billion.
“We are talking about very, very large global families, and we have been very supportive of some of the things that the government has been doing here,” Liu said in an exclusive interview in the bank’s global wealth centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.
“Hong Kong is doing many of the right things to showcase that it is back after the pandemic,” Liu said. “We have been very much working closely with the Hong Kong government as we are very supportive of the family office businesses here in the region.”
