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Swiss Classic World 2026

Hong Kong has overtaken Switzerland for the first time in cross-border wealth management, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group published on Wednesday.

Based on the volume of foreign capital under management in 2025, there were US$2.95 trillion of overseas assets in Hong Kong compared with US$2.946 trillion in Switzerland.

The study said Hong Kong’s greater volume — up 10.7 percent on the previous year — was driven by “mainland China inflows, strong IPO activity, and equity market gains”.

Switzerland saw a 7.6-percent increase in the same period.

Cross-border wealth flows intensified in 2025 despite geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties, increasing by 8.4 percent to reach US$15.7 trillion worldwide, as investors sought to diversify their assets.

“We are seeing wealth creation, cross-border capital flows, and investment ecosystems increasingly concentrate into a smaller number of globally connected hubs,” said Michael Kahlich, a co-author of the study, from BCG in Zurich.

“Hong Kong’s rise reflects the growing gravitational pull of Asian wealth and capital markets.”

Switzerland, though, remains a key financial centre, offering stability and neutrality in an uncertain geopolitical context, the study said.

The Swiss Bankers Association told AFP that the development had taken shape over several years, with asset growth in China being “exceptionally strong”, from which Hong Kong “directly benefits”.

Swiss banks “are present there themselves”, it added, as Asia is one of their growth priorities.

“For Switzerland’s future, competitive framework conditions are particularly crucial,” the association pointed out, adding that it was “essential that regulation remains targeted”.

The Hong Kong government welcomed the study’s findings.

“While global economic gravity shifts eastward, geopolitical tensions further highlight Hong Kong’s role as a safe harbour, reflecting Hong Kong’s appeal as an international financial centre,” said the secretary for financial services and the treasury, Christopher Hui.

Though Hong Kong has overtaken Switzerland as the number one in cross-border wealth management, rather than enter panic mode, Swiss banks seem unruffled — feeling it bolsters the case against looming tighter banking regulations.

Hong Kong is now the world’s largest cross-border booking centre thanks to inflows from mainland China, strong initial public offering activity, and equity market gains, said a study published last week by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Hong Kong had US$2.95 trillion of cross-border assets under management in 2025, while Switzerland had US$2.946 trillion.

Rapid advances in technology innovation and artificial intelligence sectors are “expected to open up greater scope for development within Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management industry”, said the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan.

More than 60 percent of the external capital comes from mainland China, the BCG 2026 Global Wealth Report said, adding that Hong Kong was “cementing its role as China’s gateway to global markets”.

“Uncertainties around US-China tensions are the main reason they are moving capital and managing wealth in Hong Kong,” Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking, told AFP.

However, China’s market regulator announced a sweeping investigation in May against some brokers running cross-border trading, as it launched a two-year crackdown on investment leaving the mainland.

On Monday, China’s cabinet unveiled new rules due to enter force in July, aimed at curbing outbound investment and deals with foreign entities which might transfer restricted technology, services and data overseas without authorisation.

“Investors engaging in foreign investment and related activities… shall not endanger China’s national security or harm national interests,” authorities said.

Ng noted that if Beijing “truly wants to accelerate” the internationalisation of China’s yuan currency, “it will need to accept freer cross-border capital movement”.

Tougher Swiss regulations planned

The Swiss Bankers Association told AFP that Hong Kong had been directly benefiting from exceptionally strong asset growth in China.

But it said Swiss banks too had a successful presence in key Asian growth markets.

“For Switzerland, competitive framework conditions are particularly crucial for the future. It is essential that regulation remains targeted and internationally coordinated so that both stability and competitiveness are strengthened,” it said.

Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS is currently at loggerheads with the government, which wants to tighten banking regulations following the implosion of Credit Suisse in 2023.

UBS was strongarmed into a quickfire takeover of its closest domestic rival to prevent a major blow to Switzerland’s financial stability.

Bern now wants stronger safeguards, given the merged megabank’s size relative to the Swiss economy.

Hong Kong overtaking Switzerland “shows that international competitiveness must remain at the heart of the discussions,” the Association of Swiss Private Banks, which represents wealth management firms, told AFP.

During debates on the government’s proposals, “parliament will have to keep this in mind”, it added.

‘Playing half the game’

Andreas Venditti, an analyst with Swiss investment managers Vontobel, said Hong Kong’s rise to the top had been coming because growth rates were stronger in Asia.

“As Swiss banks are among the largest wealth managers in Asia — with UBS the largest in the region by very far — they clearly benefit from the higher growth rates,” he told AFP.

UBS’s assets under management in the Asia-Pacific region amounted to US$781 billion at the end of March, he noted.

Cross-border wealth grew by 10.7 percent in Hong Kong in 2025, compared to 7.6 percent in Switzerland, said BCG.

Dean Frankle, a managing director and financial institutions specialist at BCG, said Hong Kong overtaking Switzerland is primarily down to “the rise of Asia”.

For wealthy Asian clients, “why would you go to Europe” when Hong Kong is “at your doorstep”, he said, hence the importance for Swiss banks to be competitive in the Asian market.

“If you’re not serving both markets, you’re only playing half the game,” he told AFP.

In communities throughout Switzerland’s Appenzell Hinterland and Midland regions, a unique tradition with enigmatic origins unfolds around the New Year. Known as Silvesterchlausen, the custom entails a group of boys and men who don remarkable, handmade costumes with masks and headdresses that represent rural, wild, and natural scenes.

“Silvesterchlausen,” a dreamy short film by writer and director Andrew Norman Wilson, highlights this regional seasonal event, which occurs on December 31 and January 13. The first date marks the turn of the new year on the Gregorian calendar, while January 13 denotes the same on the Julian calendar. The ornately dressed mummers, in groups of six, polyphonically yodel and ring bells. “The ritual has been performed for at least 500 years, but nobody knows how or why it began,” Wilson says.

Some of the performers’ headwear resembles miniature parade floats, while otherworldly designs made from pinecones, mosses, grasses, and other organic items make some of them appear as though they have emerged directly from the earth. In small, tight-knit municipalities, the tradition is a rare instance of relative anonymity, as familiar residents disappear behind meticulously crafted garments.

The performers, known as Chläuse, practice diligently for a month or so before the event, creating something of a “Chläus fever.” Boys form the groups and “continue throughout their lives until the members are too old to withstand the physical toll of the 18-hour days,” Wilson says, sharing that the participants build significant bonds.

As New Year’s Eve arrives, the mummers connect houses with a red string, literally and figuratively stitching connections within the community. Then, as the Chläuse move through villages and visit homes, local residents provide mulled wine to keep their bodies warm and spirits high.

See the film on Vimeo, and find more of Wilson’s work on Instagram. If you’re in the Upper Midwest, you can experience a taste of this annual tradition in New Glarus, Wisconsin. You might also enjoy Ashley Suszczynski’s incredible and mysterious photographs exploring European masking rituals.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Short Film Joins the Timeless Swiss Masked Tradition of Silvesterchlausen appeared first on Colossal.