Research and Markets: Deposit and Mutual Funds Markets in Hong Kong and Singapore Forecasted to 2006
Research and Markets has published a report of offshore financial services in Asia. The report analyzes sizes, segments (retail versus institutional) and forecasts to 2006 the offshore deposits and mutual funds markets in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The report finds that measured by total assets (i.e. offshore deposits and investment funds), Hong Kong is the largest of the two Asia-Pacific offshore jurisdictions. It is 28.8% larger than Singapore. Since 1999, Hong Kong has seen a net flow of $120 billion in offshore assets, compared to $86 billion into Singapore.
Research and Markets also reports that the EU Savings Tax Directive is widely anticipated to have a positive impact by Singaporean offshore players. Almost without exception, the reasons for this were an expected flow of funds out of EU offshore centers into Hong Kong and Singapore. Interestingly, with few exceptions, those asked about the EU STD in Hong Kong had not even heard of it.
Within Asia-Pacific there are only a handful of countries thought to be contributing a significant sum to the asset flows into the two centers, according to Research and Markets. This is good news for competitors in the two jurisdictions, less contributing countries, mean fewer countries that must be targeted in order to tap into existing asset flows and a large number of countries.