On September 28th, the China National Financial Supervision and Management Bureau released regulatory updates, proposing optimizations to the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect pilot scheme in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area:

1.Refine investor eligibility criteria to support more residents of the Greater Bay Area to participate in the pilot.

2.Expand the scope of participating institutions, adding qualified securities companies as participants to provide investment products and related services for "Southbound" and "Northbound" individual customers.

3.Broaden the range of qualified investment products for "Southbound" and "Northbound" to better meet the diverse investment needs of Greater Bay Area residents.

4.Appropriately increase the quota for individual investors.

5.Further optimize promotional and sales arrangements, guiding financial institutions to provide quality financial services to Greater Bay Area residents.

According to seasoned experts, nearly two years have passed since the detailed rules of the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect were released in September 2021. As of the end of August 2023, the number of individual investors in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area participating in the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect was 59,000, including 43,500 investors from Hong Kong and Macao and 15,500 from the mainland. The total funds transferred across the border amounted to 63.13 billion yuan through 30,200 transactions. The overall reason might be the high threshold for qualified investors, yet the quota for each investor is only 1 million yuan. For affluent individuals, this quota is merely to fulfill bank requirements, and they still need to open remittance and investment accounts as per the Connect's requirements.

During the previous pandemic, there were various account opening issues or difficulties in witnessing account openings. Therefore, this optimization of the Wealth Management Connect, expanding the scope of investors, institutions, and products, is likely more about increasing the quota for individual investors.

Next, the financial regulatory authorities in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao will revise and improve the relevant implementation details or business guidelines to promote the early implementation of various measures. At the same time, based on the pilot situation, they will continuously optimize the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect business, prudently and orderly promote the interconnection of financial markets in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and support the construction of the Greater Bay Area.