Singapore and Hong Kong: Asian wealth at home

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Singapore and Hong Kong compete for Asian wealth. Their growth accounts for a large part of Switzerland’s relative decline. Hong Kong, backed by mainland China, benefits from the flow of Chinese wealth and from its role as the gateway to the Chinese markets. Its cross-border wealth reached USD 2,900 billion in 2025.¹ Singapore, which presents itself as the Switzerland of Asia, has built over thirty years a wealth management centre founded on stability, English law, attractive taxation and a policy of attracting family offices, whose number has passed two thousand.² In commodity trading, Singapore attracted the Asian offices of the Geneva trading houses from the 2000s onwards, as Part G described. It is the centre of trading in petroleum products and liquefied natural gas for Asia.

These two centres share one characteristic with Geneva: they are small, open and dependent on trust. They differ in their political environment. Since 2020 Hong Kong has undergone increasing integration into the Chinese legal order, which worries part of its clientele and professionals and has encouraged transfers to Singapore.³ Singapore tightened its compliance requirements after a large-scale money laundering case uncovered in 2023, which served as a reminder that attracting wealth has a price.⁴ For Geneva, these two centres are competitors for Asian clients and partners for European and African clients seeking geographical diversification: the large Geneva houses have subsidiaries there, from which part of their growth derives.

Centre	Strengths	Weaknesses	What is at stake for Geneva
Dubai	taxation, location, responsiveness	compliance, regional stability, depth	commodity trading, Gulf and African clients
Singapore	stability, English law, family offices	cost, tightening of compliance	Asian clients, products trading
Hong Kong	access to China, volumes	integration into the Chinese order	first place worldwide in cross-border wealth
Luxembourg	funds, European passport, language	dependence on the Union, size	funds and European distribution
London	depth, law, talent	exit from the Union, taxation of non-domiciled residents	mutual recognition agreement since 2026
New York	volumes, innovation, capital	distance, American compliance	clients and competition in asset management

Notes

Boston Consulting Group, 27 May 2026, cited above. ↩
More than 2,000 single family offices in Singapore at the end of 2024 according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore; Caproasia, “Singapore Reports More than 2,000 Single Family Offices in Singapore at the End of 2024”, caproasia.com, 15 January 2025. ↩
Law on Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and in force since 30 June 2020; “2020 Hong Kong national security law”, en.wikipedia.org (accessed September 2026); on transfers to Singapore, Boston Consulting Group, 27 May 2026, cited above. ↩
Arrests of 15 August 2023, ten convictions, approximately three billion Singapore dollars in assets seized or frozen, fines of SGD 27.45 million imposed on 4 July 2025 on nine financial institutions; “2023 Singapore money laundering case”, en.wikipedia.org (accessed September 2026); six family offices benefiting from tax incentives linked to the case according to Caproasia, 15 January 2025. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

My approach is to act as a trusted advisor who works directly with decision-makers, on an equal footing: I start from what you want to achieve and shape every structure, contract and tax decision around your commercial goals and how it improves your after-tax return. As “lawyers who make it happen”, my team and I stay involved until your company is set up, your structure is in place and your transaction has closed, and we remain available for any follow-on work that may be required. You benefit from bespoke solutions and personal attention, and sound, friendly and practical advice. We are not the lowest-cost provider in the market, nor do we intend to be; our aim is to deliver well-founded, proper solutions and excellent value for money.

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Singapore and Hong Kong: Asian wealth at home

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?