String of incentives on offer as SAR prepares to greet 'through train'

Bank of China Hong Kong (BOCHK) said Thursday it will introduce various new products and services to enable its clients to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, which will take effect on Monday, and the lifting of the daily yuan conversion cap.

"Based on the launch of the 'through train', as well as the lifting of the 20,000 yuan ($3264) daily conversion cap in Hong Kong, we will roll out more yuan-denominated financial services and products," said Ann Kung, head of BOCHK's personal banking unit.

She said that, from Monday, BOCHK will offer a greater variety of structured deposit products in yuan, including currency-linked deposits, and personal renminbi loans for Hong Kong residents. It will also offer clients a new A-share margin trading service.

Under the cross-trading scheme, Bank of China will act as the exclusive settlement bank for northbound trading and one of the five settlement banks for southbound trading.

To facilitate the expected increase in investment flow, mainland authorities said earlier the daily conversion limit of 20,000 yuan for Hong Kong residents will be removed from Monday.

"With the conversion limit removed, we will be able to extend the service to Hong Kong citizens. We will start with mortgage loans first," Kung said. Previously, such loans denominated in renminbi were only available to non-Hong Kong residents.

Kung estimated that market demand for yuan-denominated mortgage loans will be comparatively larger than that of other kinds of renminbi loans. "It mainly targets those who expect the yuan to depreciate as well as those with stable yuan assets and income, and who are immune to foreign exchange risks," she said.

Separately, various banks in town have been offering preferential interest rates to attract yuan deposits, which is expected to grow rapidly in size after the lifting of the conversion cap. "As trading through the Stock Connect is to be settled in yuan, we estimate that Hong Kong depositors will be looking for higher rates and terms to give them greater flexibility in deploying their yuan funds," Kung said.

She added that BOCHK has already waived the penalty for early withdrawals to attract new renminbi time deposits. "We believe more banks will introduce more innovative terms to attract renminbi deposits," she said.

Chow Chak-chee, head of product management at BOCHK, said A-share margin trading will be popular among Hong Kong investors.

"For the 568 A-shares available through the stocks link, BOCHK will offer clients margin trading opportunities in more than 100 stocks with margin ratios ranging from 40 to 60 percent," he said.

According to Chow, the bank will offer the most preferential interest rate - 1 percentage point lower than the prime lending rate - for A-share margin business. The discounted rate, he said, stands at around 4 percent, which is similar to the cost of borrowing Hong Kong dollars.

"Local retail investors are interested in the Stock Connect, but they are still cautious," Chow said.

"According to our survey, about 60 percent of Hong Kong investors are interested in investing in Shanghai's A-share market. However, in the first six months, they plan to allocate only 10 to 15 percent of their investable assets to it. We expect the allocation rate to pick up when Hong Kong investors learn more about the mainland's equity market. Meanwhile, institutional investors who are more familiar with the market are expected to be active from the start," he said.

emmadai@chinadailyhk.com

Bank of China is gearing up to launch a series of stock trading services aimed at catering to investors' growing needs generated by the upcoming Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program. Parker Zheng / China Daily

(HK Edition 11/14/2014 page8)