Hong Kong's Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau reported that Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui began a five-day visit to Canada, starting in Toronto with meetings at Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank and with Power Corporation of Canada, to encourage Canadian financial groups and enterprises to expand wealth management and family office activity in Hong Kong. In discussions with the banks, Hui positioned Hong Kong as Asia’s largest cross-border wealth management hub and highlighted product breadth and the recent passage of stablecoins legislation. He cited end-2023 figures showing US$185.2 billion (HKD 1,452 billion) in private banking and private wealth management business attributed to family offices and private trust clients. With Power Corporation of Canada, he outlined Hong Kong’s facilitation measures for family offices, including that no licence is required for a single family office under the Securities and Futures Ordinance if it does not carry on a business of regulated activity in Hong Kong, alongside profit tax exemptions for qualifying transactions. He also referenced planned enhancements to preferential tax regimes for funds, single family offices and carried interest, including expanding the scope of “fund” under the tax exemption regime, increasing qualifying transactions eligible for concessions, and enhancing the tax concession arrangement for carried interest distributions by private equity funds. The Bureau indicated the Government is targeting finalising proposal details within 2025 and submitting legislative proposals to the Legislative Council in 2026, aiming to implement relevant measures from the year of assessment 2025/26. Hui’s Toronto programme for May 27 includes visits to two insurance companies and meetings with the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association (Toronto Chapter) and financial leaders.

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