Welab Bank, a virtual bank licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, will launch its Goweath Digital Wealth Advisory for some of its customers.
The bank is the first virtual bank in Hong Kong authorised to offer digital wealth advisory services, after obtaining the required licenses from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
“Although Hong Kong enjoys abundant wealth solutions options, only on-third of locals have access to professional financial advice, indicating substantial unmet needs of wealth management in the market,” said KC Chan, chairman of Welab Bank.
“Welab Bank has leveraged fintech to fill up gap in the wealth management market by designing a personalised, intelligent wealth management advisory solution for all”.
Gowealth recommends portfolios to investors in three steps: set, track and goal.
Investors will have to select their goals to fit their financial needs and set a target in the application, then the adviser will recommend a purpose-built portfolio based on the goal set. Available on the bank’s mobile app, Gowealth relies on the investment abilities of Allianz Global Investors.
The public launch of the service, including investment advisory, transaction and goal management, is scheduled for the near future, but interested customers can already preview the interface on the application, the bank said.
Financial goals
Welab and Allianz GI also conducted a survey to understand the financial goals and difficulties faced by Hong Kongers.
Although more than 80% of the respondents have clear financial goals, seven in 10 people are unsure if their current financial plans would help achieve those objectives.
Popular ambitions include quitting their jobs to spend a year on “realising dreams” (33%) and to achieve financial independence before the age of 50 (33%).
The survey also found that respondents generally allocate 20% of their income to savings and investments, but 65% said they are not clear about their investment portfolio composition and its performance.
More than half of the surveyed individuals think they need professional financial advice, but have no access to it.
The survey was conducted on 1,000 people aged 20-59 and with a monthly household income of no less than HK$15,000 (£1,453, $1,917, €1,744).
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