CCB (Asia) operates a retail and wealth management business in Hong Kong, serving local Hong Kong residents and Chinese Mainland customers whose income, assets and family needs extend across the border to Hong Kong.

Annie Chen, deputy chief executive of CCB (Asia), is responsible for the integrated management of the retail and wealth businesses. Chen explained that the operating context for the Hong Kong franchise is shaped by its position within the wider China Construction Bank group. Customers associate the Hong Kong bank with the group’s scale and global network capabilities and expect continuity when their financial lives cross jurisdictions.

At the same time, she stressed that the business remains firmly anchored in Hong Kong. Retail and wealth activity continues to be governed by Hong Kong regulatory standards even as demand increasingly reflects cross-boundary mobility and comparison. In Chen’s framing, the task is not to chase cross-border growth opportunistically, but to absorb structural changes in customer behaviour while keeping governance, service quality and risk discipline intact.

Hong Kong as the anchor market under rising cross-boundary mobility

Chen described Hong Kong as the anchor market for the retail and wealth business. She said a growing share of customers now have income, assets or family ties linked to the Mainland, even though their accounts are booked and serviced in Hong Kong. This influences how customers assess products, pricing and perceived value.

Chen explained that these customers are not managed as a separate offshore segment. Instead, they sit within a single Hong Kong operating framework, with consistent onboarding, suitability checks and product approval standards.

She noted that rising mobility across the boundary increases complexity rather than reducing it. Customers compare offerings across markets and expect flexibility, without understanding the regulatory constraints behind them. The role of the Hong Kong franchise is to bridge these conversations and add value throughout  the process, ensuring a good customer journey.

For Chen, anchoring the business in Hong Kong standards is essential precisely because cross-boundary demand introduces volatility in expectations. The anchor prevents that volatility from translating into mis-selling or inconsistent execution.

Serving GBA-linked customers through controlled cross-border capability

Chen said cross-boundary servicing is treated as an operating capability rather than a marketing initiative. Customers associate the Hong Kong franchise with the broader China Construction Bank network and expect continuity when their financial needs span the region.

She described how wealth management  relationship teams engage with customers across the GBA, including physical interaction and coordination of servicing requirements, particularly for customers whose time and assets move frequently across jurisdictions.

This activity takes place within a well-designed framework that allows Hong Kong financial institutions to serve eligible customers across the GBA, for example, through defined Connect schemes or by communicating effectively with Chinese Mainland customers through the corporate WeChat platform.

In her account, cross-boundary reach raises the bar for control. The more mobile the customer base becomes, the more important it is to ensure consistent execution rather than localised exceptions.

Retail income mix shaped by wealth activity and digital execution

Chen said the retail and wealth business is supported by both net interest income and fee income, with wealth-related fees forming a notable share of overall income. She explained that fee income reflects customer engagement in investment and wealth products rather than balance-sheet growth alone. Customers who transact, rebalance and invest regularly contribute more sustainably than customers who simply hold deposits.

Chen noted that a growing proportion of wealth transactions are executed through digital channels. Digital execution has therefore become a direct contributor to fee income, not just a servicing convenience. She said this shift changes operating economics. Digital channels allow higher transaction volumes to be supported without proportional increases in manual processing, reducing marginal cost as activity scales.

Throughout her explanation, Chen stressed that digitalisation does not replace governance. Suitability, disclosure and approval requirements apply consistently across digital and face-to-face channels, and digital scale makes discipline more important, not less.

Structured products managed through sequencing and suitability discipline

Chen discussed structured products by differentiating clearly between principal-protected and non-principal-protected structures. She explained that customers are introduced first to simpler or lower-risk products before progressing to more complex structures. This sequencing allows customers to understand payoff mechanics and execution processes before assuming higher risk. Chen said this approach is particularly important as customers compare yields across markets. Demand for returns can create tension when risk tolerance does not align with yield expectations.

Rather than using structured products as a volume lever, Chen described them as a test of discipline. Growth must be paced to customer understanding rather than driven by headline returns.

In her framing, suitability failures in structured products carry disproportionate long-term consequences, especially in a cross-boundary context where reputational and regulatory risks can escalate quickly.

Cross-border wealth and retirement planning as a two-way operating model

Chen described cross-border wealth management as a two-way operating model rather than a one-directional flow of Mainland assets into Hong Kong.

On one side, Mainland and GBA  customers increasingly use Hong Kong to access global and offshore investment products that are not available onshore, including diversified investment solutions and structured products. She noted that many of these customers initially engage cautiously, using smaller transactions to test service quality, execution reliability and suitability processes before committing larger balances.

Equally important, Chen emphasised the opposite flow. Hong Kong customers are increasingly planning retirement, healthcare and later-life living arrangements in the GBA, where costs are lower and space is more accessible.

Within this context, Chen referred to cooperation with Chinese insurance partners, including Taiping Insurance, to support retirement-oriented propositions linked to Mainland retirement communities such as Guangzhou. These solutions combine insurance protection with access to healthcare and elderly-care infrastructure designed to meet Hong Kong customer expectations.

She explained that these propositions are integrated into broader wealth and life-planning conversations rather than positioned as standalone insurance sales. In her account, cross-border wealth management succeeds only when financial products, insurance coverage and servicing arrangements function coherently across jurisdictions.

Operating discipline expressed through efficiency and risk outcomes

Chen said operating efficiency has improved over time, with the cost-to-income ratio moving from the 40s” range to the “30s” range. She linked this improvement to automation and digitalisation rather than reductions in service capability. Process redesign allows higher activity levels to be supported at lower marginal cost.

Chen also pointed to conservative risk outcomes, with very low delinquency and charge-off levels across the retail portfolio. She explained that these outcomes reflect discipline in customer selection, product design and ongoing monitoring rather than short-term growth restraint.

Mortgages form part of the broader retail offering, but Chen positions them as an offering to meet customer needs rather than as a core driver of the retail and wealth business. In her account, the centre of gravity lies in controlled wealth activity and long-term customer engagement and companionship.

Two-way connectivity raises opportunity and tightens discipline

Chen said cross-boundary demand has become a structural feature of Hong Kong retail and wealth banking rather than a temporary trend. Customers move easily across the region, compare offerings across markets and expect continuity in service, pricing and execution.

She reiterated that Hong Kong standards remain the anchor for suitability and governance, even as customer lives extend beyond the city. Wealth growth, in her framing, is pursued through sequencing, education and trust rather than short-term volume.

Digital execution enables scale and efficiency, but Chen stressed that it also reinforces the need for strong controls because operational failures scale as quickly as successes.