HSBC Private Bank is working to differentiate its ultra high net worth (UHNW) offering with a specialist team and by opening its own balance sheet deals to clients, hoping to cut through the “One Bank” marketing noise.

As part of HSBC’s proposition, the UHNW Solutions Group (USG), established in 2022, is a mix of a client-facing and product specialist team, operating across Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Switzerland. It works closely with relationship managers within the private bank and investment partners in its Wealth and Premier Solutions (WPS) unit.

Since its launch, the team has broadened its scope to work across the bank, including with corporate and institutional banking, asset management, and innovation banking, Irene Chen, global head of UHNW Solutions Group at HSBC Private Bank, told Asian Private Banker.

“We are the traffic director or triage centre, responsible for receiving and consolidating all ultra client information and requests. We identify the most suitable platform within HSBC to address the opportunity and then collaborate with that business line to originate, structure, and deliver the targeted solution,” Chen told APB.

Vital to the team is the strength of HSBC’s “One Bank” proposition. “One Bank” is now a common fixture of larger banks in Asia Pacific, which use it to cater to the more complex business and private wealth needs of UHNW, family office and entrepreneurial clients.

But to capture greater UHNW opportunities, HSBC will have its work cut out for it. While private banking industry AUM is expanding in Asia, competition is also growing more fierce, with banking giants such as Standard Chartered, UBS and Morgan Stanley, among others, all targeting the UHNW segment.

In that regard, the Asia USG team is keeping busy at HSBC. Chen explained that the team participated in over 600 meetings with existing clients and prospects in 2025, alongside relationship managers and investment partners.

“We talk to the client day by day to understand them comprehensively. When there is an opportunity coming in, the USG team will know inside-out where the client demand and interest lie and to make the right connection,” she said.

Three I’s

Part of the USG team’s approach to UHNW clients is the triple-I service, standing for Investment Intelligence for sophisticated Investors.

Clients who are granted access to the triple I service are treated as institutional investors, gaining direct access to institutional structures and deals that may not be available to typical private banking clients. After a selection and pre-qualification process primarily targeting family offices, clients can sign up for the service.

This year, the bank streamlined the triple-I sign-up process, resulting in a 2x increase in its triple-I client population compared to 2024. “When we want to come up with some meaningful offering, we also have a meaningful client base to look into […] The demand is there, and I’m confident that this will continue to grow,” Chen said.

A key differentiator of this service, in Chen’s view, is the opportunity for clients to co-invest directly with HSBC institutional capital, such as HSBC Life. In response to the rising client interest in private market alternatives over the past years, the bank offered triple-I clients a curated selection of private funds in which the HSBC Group already invests.

 “Clients appreciate that HSBC has skin in the game in a particular fund or direct investment project. It’s the uniqueness and the exclusiveness that we offer to the triple I client,” she said.

Recognising the client’s need for a single, comprehensive view, the bank also integrated all their investments, including private banking products and bespoke triple-I transactions, under HSBC Prism this year. “You cannot provide clients a silo offering without helping them to understand where their investment portfolios are now in terms of risk and return assessment,” she said.

Global, generational connectivity

The USG, as a front-and-centre team, is also uniquely positioned to strengthen global entrepreneurial connectivity, according to Chen.

For example, she shared that a sophisticated Middle Eastern family office was onboarded on HSBC PB’s Hong Kong booking centre via the bank’s Asia-Middle East wealth corridor. The client required the construction of a significant-sized multi-asset portfolio with defined objectives to be executed within a short timeframe.

The USG team also looks at the shifting investment patterns of younger generations as the wealth transfer plays out in Asia. It began connecting second-gen ultra-clients directly with companies from the HSBC Innovation Banking network this year. This includes closed-door private banking meet-ups with founders of the tech innovators, facilitating one-on-one interactions to help clients tap into the new economy, Chen said.

“We see more wealth transitioning between generations of our clients, and for the new generation, they are very interested in frontier technology like artificial intelligence, robotics and clouds,” Chen said.