HK urged to chase long-term 'patient capital'

Hong Kong should go after money that stays put, not cash that flees at the first wobble, the Financial Services Development Council said on Wednesday, in a push to tighten the city's hold as Asia's wealth-management hub. The council has set out ways in a new report to attract this “patient capital” from pension funds and insurers at home, on the mainland and overseas. The council's Vice-Chairman, Ding Chen, said the report aims to turn Hong Kong into a long-term capital hub. "The central objective of this report is to make Hong Kong not only a place where capital is raised, and traded, but also place where capital is managed, invested, and reinvested over a longer period of time," she said. The report says there should be more products investors can buy, including bonds and a wider range of stocks, with tighter risk controls. It also calls for more cross-border channels, especially for pensions and insurance. Rocky Tung, the council's executive director, said this stickier money could be "the stabilising force" amid market swings, which supports new financial products and backs growth that lasts. "There is a lot of investment coming in and out of a market or an economy, and they are...