Hong Kong spot ETFs lack bank support despite growing institutional interest
Key Points
- Despite increasing interest from institutional investors, virtual asset spot ETFs in Hong Kong face obstacles due to bank concerns over regulatory risks and shortage of technical talent.
- An EY survey shows that institutional investors are showing increasing interest in virtual asset spot ETFs in Hong Kong.
- Traditional banks are hesitant to support the ETFs due to regulatory risks of anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations and shortage of technical talent.
- Traditional banks lack technical talent to handle virtual asset transactions, resulting in insufficient support for Hong Kong spot ETFs.
- Institutional investors expect to increase allocations to virtual assets in the next 2 to 3 years, and large investors may allocate about 1% of their assets to virtual currencies.
- Traditional financial institutions are beginning to pay attention to the application of virtual asset technology in payment, settlement and custody services.