HSBC announced yesterday (May 23) the launch of an online trading capability for structured products in Asia.
The development enables global clients to trade directly from their mobile phones fixed coupon notes (FCNs) relating to underlying stocks across eight international markets; Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, UK and USA.
The launch offers to clients a book building process enabling them to subscribe to FCNs linked to global equities during Asian business hours, with access to a dedicated digital support team for 20 hours each day, five days per week.
Other products, including cash equities, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and foreign exchange (FX), are already available for trading on the bank’s digital platform. Additional support for equity linked notes will be added to the platform later in the year, the announcement explained.
Siew Meng Tan, regional head of HSBC Global Private Banking in APAC explained in the note that currently, over 30% of execution-only trades in Asia are completed online, with approximately two-thirds of the bank’s clients digitally engaged.
Speaking to FinanceAsia, Sharon Oh, chief operating officer for HSBC Global Private Banking in APAC shared, “a large portion of our clients are experienced and proactive in managing their wealth. They are also highly confident with digital and tend to be more hands on when it comes to trading.” She explained that this type of client persona is more prominent in Asia, compared with other global regions.
Witnessing a shift in the demographics of Asia’s growing high-net-worth (HNW) population towards a more tech-savvy generation, Oh explained that the bank is focussed on offering its clients a deeper product shelf within the year. The move forms part of the bank’s wider effort to invest $100 million over a two-year period to build and innovate its core banking and digital platforms to meet fast-changing client needs.
“Our clients lead busy daily lives and they’re increasingly regional, international and global in nature; they want convenience, flexibility, simplicity, and personalisation in the way they interact and bank with us.”
She said that in defining its digital transformation strategy, the bank had to consider the holistic client end-to-end experience across the full lifecycle, from onboarding to servicing.
“Building on this strong foundation, we will not only be releasing new features and products, but further integrating these capabilities, to ensure a seamless client experience across the online and offline hybrid journey.”
With a large number of digital capabilities launching in a short space of time, Oh highlighted clear communication and support as being key to delivering a best-in-class client experience. She said that the bank is working to automate further and upgrade its internal systems to ensure process capacity for the additional volumes generated through digital solutions.
