• Financial services and an investment bank are betting on growth in metaverse-related companies in Asia.
• HSBC aims at becoming the largest wealth manager in the area by 2025.
• The portfolio’s Metaverse Discretionary Strategy will be centered on five segments in this virtual space.

HSBC Holdings, NYSE:, announced the creation of a fund to capitalize on investment opportunities within the metaverse. This is exclusive for its millionaire and billionaire clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. This is a growing market.

According to a statement released Wednesday by the London-based bank, its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio would focus on five investment segments of the metaverse ecosystem. They include virtualization and infrastructure as well compute and interface.

“Many exciting opportunities” for clients

Lina Lim from HSBC, Asia Pacific Regional Head for Discretionary and Funds for Investments and Wealth Solutions said, “The metaverse eco-system, although still in its infant stages, is quickly evolving.”
Her asset management division will be managing the investment portfolio. She said that they saw “many exciting possibilities” for professional investors as companies from different backgrounds and sizes were being added to this ecosystem.
It is comprised of many virtual reality environments that allow users to play, interact and collaborate. These virtual spaces can be accessed via various devices such as smartphones or PCs.

HSBC said that this portfolio is only available to high- and very wealthy clients, as well as other investors based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The British bank announced the March purchase of an area of virtual land in an online gaming environment. HSBC was the second international bank to invest in the metaverse after JPMorgan (NYSE:), an American investment bank.

To The Flipside

• Facebook (NASDAQ.) (now Meta), decided to place its future on metaverse. Other businesses, such as some investment banks and other financial institutions have also followed their lead.
• Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions (CitiGPS) predicts that the metaverse could be worth up to $13,000 million and have approximately 5 billion users connected.

What you should care about

• HSBC set a target to become the Asia’s largest wealth manager by 2025.
• It is spending $3.5 billion on its wealth segment and in personal banking.

The number of millionaires and rich individuals in China, India, and other Asian countries is increasing, so global wealth managers including Credit Suisse UBS and (SIX) are expanding their businesses in the area.

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