The multinational investment bank and financial services holding company, HSBC Holdings, is looking to capitalize on metaverse investment opportunities for its affluent clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. The move comes amid a thorough effort from financial services companies worldwide to take part in the rising popularity of the metaverse and immersive technologies.
The company announced that its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio, managed by its asset management arm, will increasingly seek investment opportunities across the metaverse sector, focusing on infrastructure, computing, virtualization, experience and discovery, and interface.
“The metaverse ecosystem, while still at its early stage, is rapidly evolving,” said Lina Lim, Regional Head of Discretionary and Funds for Investments and Wealth Solutions, Asia Pacific, at HSBC. “We see many exciting opportunities in this space as companies of different backgrounds and sizes flock into the ecosystem.”
Metaverse incorporates an ecosystem of virtual environments accessible through various devices, providing users a virtual platform to work, socialize, and play. The concept massively gained traction worldwide as Facebook rebranded itself to Meta, establishing its focus on the domain.
HSBC further stated that its discretionary portfolio caters to high net worth and ultra-high net worth professional investors and accredited investor clients in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Last month, the financial giant also picked up a plot of virtual real estate in the online gaming space, Decentraland, to become the second global bank to invest in the popular metaverse platform after JPMorgan.
The financial services company is setting aside $3.5 billion for its wealth and personal banking business, aiming to become Asia’s top wealth manager by 2025.
Global wealth managers, such as UBS and Credit Suisse, are now increasingly focusing on Asia markets, including China and India, with the rapid growth in the number of millionaires and billionaires in the region.
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