- The financial services and investment bank is betting on the growth of metaverse-related businesses in Asia.
- HSBC aims to become the most important wealth manager in the region by 2025.
- Its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio will focus on five investment segments of this virtual space.
HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC) announced the launch of a fund aimed at capturing investment opportunities in the metaverse, exclusively for its billionaire and millionaire clients from Hong Kong and Singapore, just as other financial services companies are doing that they see in the virtual reality space. a potential growing market.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the London-based bank said its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio will focus on five investment segments in the metaverse ecosystem: virtualization, infrastructure, compute, interface, and experience and discovery.
“Many exciting opportunities” for clients
HSBC Regional Head of Discretionary and Funds for Investments and Wealth Solutions, Asia Pacific, Lina Lim, said: "The metaverse ecosystem, while still in its infancy, is rapidly evolving." She added that in this investment portfolio that her asset management division will manage, they see "many exciting opportunities" for professional investors "as companies of different origins and sizes are being brought into the ecosystem." The metaverse is made up of a network of virtual reality-based environments where users can play, socialize and work. Access to these virtual spaces is possible through various devices, including smartphones and PCs.
HSBC indicated that this discretionary portfolio is designed exclusively for high and very high net worth clients and other investors operating in Hong Kong and Singapore.
In March, the British bank reported the purchase of a plot of virtual real estate located in an online gaming space. In this way, HSBC became the second global bank to make investments in the metaverse, after the American investment bank JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) did it in the Decentraland virtual reality platform.
On The Flipside
- After Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) (now Meta) decided to bet its future on the metaverse, other companies including some investment banks have followed suit.
- A report by Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions (Citi GPS), predicts that by 2030 the metaverse will be a business of up to 13,000 million dollars and will have some 5 billion people connected to these platforms.
Why You Should Care
- HSBC has set a goal of becoming the largest wealth manager in Asia by 2025.
- To do this, it is investing some $3.5 billion in its wealth and personal banking segment.
