A risk-on mentality over the summer benefited some wealthy clients, but market corrections could lie ahead, said Judy Hsu, the bank’s CEO of wealth and retail banking, in an interview last week.
“In July and August, we [saw] more clients across the board deploying more cash into investment products and they are looking to put more of that deposit into the market,” said Hsu, who in October relocated to Hong Kong, the bank’s most profitable market.
Market sentiment stabilised after the US and China unveiled a 90-day tariff truce, reversing what had been a prevailing mood of caution since April, she said.
“The key here is really diversification,” Hsu said. “From our advisory perspective, we always go in with a portfolio approach.”
Hsu observed that clients invested in fixed-income assets expected interest rates to eventually decrease. On equities, while some allocations were shifted into Asia – specifically Hong Kong and mainland China – there was “still a lot of interest” in the US because of its strong technology sector, she said.
