By aligning wealth management ambitions with a bold digital agenda, Standard Chartered is advancing its retail leadership in Hong Kong
As Hong Kong’s banking environment contends with geopolitical uncertainties and shifting interest rate expectations, Standard Chartered Hong Kong has leaned into its strengths – a sharp focus on the affluent segment, digital delivery and a suite of flexible savings products – to navigate disruption and deliver record results. Instead of retrenching in the face of slower retail asset growth, the bank advanced its regional strategy to become the preferred wealth manager for high-net-worth (HNW) clients while expanding its digital savings footprint.
Affluent-led wealth
A cornerstone of this strategy is the bank’s Priority Private programme, which has seen a 26% year-on-year growth in client base and a 55% surge among professional investors. With close to 40% of Priority Private clients qualifying as professional investors, Standard Chartered’s product sophistication – including credit-linked notes and open architecture funds – has helped generate significant growth in net new sales of wealth solutions.
Supporting this, a strengthened client acquisition engine, bolstered by partnerships with Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific and regional referral channels, has delivered a 2x year-on-year increase in net new money, with more than half of this coming from new-to-bank clients.
Lifestyle, loyalty and long-term engagement
Client engagement goes beyond financial performance. From exclusive chartered flights to Japan and a private golf series to motivational sessions with Olympians, Standard Chartered Hong Kong has doubled down on experiences that deepen relationships and build inter-generational loyalty.
These events not only reinforce the bank’s value as a long-term partner in the lives of its clients but also align with its vision of offering banking that is both personal and purposeful.
Digital-first savings reimagined
Equally transformative is Standard Chartered Hong Kong’s innovation in deposits. From the Marathon Savings Account – a flexible, high-yield product – to Asia Miles Time Deposits, which pair savings with travel rewards, the bank has modernised the role of deposits in client acquisition and loyalty. Supporting this suite is a fully digitised onboarding process, intuitive calculators and reward preview tools. These efforts helped drive a 6.7x growth in number of accounts opened since 2021.
This dual focus on an affluent-led strategy and deposit innovation has set a new benchmark for Hong Kong’s retail banking landscape. Standard Chartered’s achievements have been recognised with two accolades at the Retail Banker International Asia Trailblazer Awards 2025: Best Retail Bank – Hong Kong and Best Savings Plan Offering.