Investment product sales surged 34% to $508b in 2017

The double-digit growth came as Mainland firms beefed up their wealth businesses.

The sale of non-exchange traded investment products to individual investors booked double-digit growth of 34% to $508b in 2017, according to survey from the Securities and Financial Commission (SFC). 

“The increase in the aggregate transaction amount was mainly driven by Mainland based firms, some of which expanded their wealth management business in the reporting period,” the SFC said in a statement, adding that larger firms that provided more employee training courses may have also contributed to the yearly sales increase.

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A larger number of clients had bigger risk appetites and sought higher investment returns in 2017 amidst favourable market sentiment. The level of investor confidence manifested as equity-linked product transactions ballooned 102% and non-investment grade corporate bonds surged 65%.

In a breakdown, structured investment products remained the most popular product type accounting for 42% of transaction amount followed by fixed income products (29%), collective investment schemes (20%) and swaps and repos (6%).

Even as the transaction amount for products like structured investment products, government and corporate bonds, swaps and repos, collective investment schemes and hedge funds surged, the number of firms engaged in such transactions only edged up by a marginal 3% to 252 from 244 in 2016.

The survey was conducted from April 2017 to March 2018.