London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Family Office Advisers See Rising Interest in Leaving Hong Kong

Family Office Advisers See Rising Interest in Leaving Hong Kong

Service providers to some of Asia’s wealthiest families say they are fielding a rising number of calls about shifting away from Hong Kong, with some already moving money to Singapore-based banks.

“Projects that were going into Hong Kong, people are now holding back,” said Shanker Iyer, Asia executive chairman at IQ-EQ, which says it has about $450 billion of assets under administration for family offices and other investors.

The company is getting regular calls from clients asking about the logistics of leaving Hong Kong, he said. “People who aren’t in the market already and want to come in, they’re having second thoughts,” with Singapore seen as a much more business-friendly destination, he added.

The shift comes at a critical time for Hong Kong, which has been roiled by months of violent protests that have made investors fearful of direct intervention by Chinese authorities to quell the unrest.


‘Little Typhoon’


Clifford Ng, a managing partner at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Hong Kong, who specializes in advising high net-worth individuals on cross-border transactions and investments and has lived in the city since 1995, said the level of interest in moving assets to Singapore is “unprecedented.”

“We have certainly received a lot of questions regarding the freedom to move money,” he said. “Investors hate uncertainty and Hong Kong is a little typhoon within a much bigger storm of uncertainty. Risk avoidance, in handling other people’s money, drives that money to a less uncertain place.”

With financial services accounting for about one-fifth of Hong Kong’s GDP, any disruption will have a real impact on the economy, which is already slipping as tourists desert the city and retail sales slump.

Hong Kong Is Sinking Into a Recession With No Recovery in Sight

The possibility of Hong Kong’s legal system changing earlier than the scheduled deadline of 2047 is another cause of angst among family offices, according to IQ-EQ Group Executive Chairman Serge Krancenblum.

The city operates a legal system derived from British common law under the One Country, Two Systems principle. A failed attempt to introduce extradition laws that would expose citizens to prosecution in mainland China sparked the protests and the imposition of colonial-era emergency powers have also shaken investor confidence.

How Far Hong Kong’s Emergency Law Can Go (Online Too): QuickTake

“If you’re an investor, even a non-local one with Hong Kong structures as a family office, how can you base your future on a system that may not be there as long as you thought it would be?” Krancenblum said. “This is a very big problem. Investors, and families, care about stability.”

The instability may already be having an impact, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimating that there has been an outflow of Hong Kong dollar deposits of between $3 billion to $4 billion to Singapore.


Hedge Funds


“We’ve seen some of our Hong Kong-based managed clients that have said they want to move their assets from Hong Kong-based banks to Singapore-based banks,” said Steve Knabl, chief operating officer of Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte, whose platform hosts hedge funds and wealth managers. “So the move is clearly there, especially from private clients.”

While many hedge funds are seeking advice from lawyers, accountants and migration agents, few are actually moving, and Knabl said he didn’t expect an overnight shift in staff from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Eurekahedge Pte data show assets under management by Hong Kong hedge funds reached a record high $92.1 billion in September.

This is partly because the months-long process needed to get a license in Singapore can be a deterrent to moving. Hong Kong also remains a better gateway for hedge funds seeking to profit from mainland China without the downsides of living there.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×