Nick Winsor, chief executive of HSBC Expat, said the products are now available following a soft launch last month, and are the first of their kind to be offered into the UK offshore market.
They are expected to be popular, he added, as HSBC Expat’s multi-jurisdictional-living clients seek to diversify their portfolios during turbulent times, and to take advantage of what is widely expected to be a continued gradual rise in the renminbi’s value relative to other currencies.
“And having established a base of renminbi depositors, we would then expect to move to the next stage, in due course, which would to add other investment products denominated in renminbi, such as renminbi bonds, mutual funds, dual currency investments,” Winsor went on.
“We see this very much in terms of the future.”
The new HSBC Expat products include currency savings accounts, deposit accounts and foreign exchange products and services.
HSBC said that it expects initial interest in the new renminbi range will come mainly from customers who either trade foreign exchange regularly, or those with an affiliation with China. A British expatriate living and working in the Gulf, for example, might maintain such an account in Jersey, as part of a portfolio that would contain elements in other currencies offered by HSBC, Winsor said.
HSBC Expat’s move into renminbi products comes as interest in the Chinese currency has leapt, even as the euro has struggled to survive.
In January, Chancellor George Osborne made headlines when he called for London to become “the home of Asian investment in Europe”, by, among other things, embracing the Chinese currency. So-called “Dim Sum” bonds and renminbi-denominated funds have mushroomed since September 2009, when China issued its first sovereign bonds denominated in its own currency. Since then, financial markets including Hong Kong and Singapore have been racing to establish themselves as centres for products denominated in the currency.
For more information please visit www.expat.hsbc.com.
