Financial services in the Greater Bay Area “ready for take-off” – PwC paper

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Nearly five years since the GBA Outline Development Plan was launched, market sentiment and a wide range of tech-powered initiatives suggest that the GBA is at an inflection point

Hong Kong, 20 November 2023 – PwC Hong Kong today releases a new paper, Financial Services in the Greater Bay Area: Ready for take-off. The paper is based on in-depth interviews with senior figures in insurance, banking and asset management, as well as representatives of trade bodies and academia. The paper finds a much higher level of interest than in its previous papers on the topic, with one senior banker describing the GBA as “an unmissable opportunity.”

“Market sentiment has grown much more bullish since we last surveyed the financial services industry,” says James Chang, Managing Partner of Regional Economic Clusters, Mainland China Financial Services Leader, PwC China. “This is due to a number of factors: there has been a proliferation of Government-led initiatives in the GBA over the last couple of years. This is combined with exciting new technology solutions from market players that help resolve many of the challenges implicit in the GBA. On top of this, there is a lot of pent-up energy after the COVID years.”

PwC’s clients and other interviewees point to recent developments, such as the HKMA’s FinTech Promotion Roadmap and measures to promote financial cooperation between Qianhai and Hong Kong. There is also much discussion of the widely-expected expansion of Wealth Management Connect – with larger individual quotas and a relaxation of rules on offering sales advice.  

“When researching our previous GBA papers, some market participants expected challenges due to working across the three jurisdictions of the GBA,” says Chris Chan, Financial Services Markets Leader, GBA Services, PwC China. “But in the last couple of years there have been very exciting developments in the permissioned sharing of data. Combined with the accelerated pace of digital adoption during Covid, financial services players find themselves operating in a very different environment.”

As outlined in the paper, advances in data verification and principles such as ‘minimum necessary information’ in data sharing could unleash a wide range of new opportunities where financial services, healthcare and technology intersect. Many of these new products and services could be pivotal in helping the vision of a ‘one-hour living circle’ in the GBA become a reality.

“Many of the developments we highlight in our paper are not exclusive to the GBA and could potentially flourish elsewhere in China,” says Mr Chang. “But there is a unique combination of professional expertise, financial infrastructure and entrepreneurial wealth in the GBA. There is also an intense concentration of financial and policy innovation, which is likely to transform the GBA. The excitement and anticipation in the market is reflected in the points of view captured in our new paper.”  
 

Notes to editors

Full report: Financial Services in the Greater Bay Area: Ready for take-off