“Our clients’ interest in investing has grown,” Law, managing director and head of affluent segment and distribution, wealth and retail banking at Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said in a briefing on Thursday. “They are keen to enhance their investment knowledge and gain access to unique products.”

First-quarter data from Standard Chartered showed the number of clients who moved up the ladder from other segments to the private-priority tier – those with assets worth more than US$1 million – surged 45 per cent from a year earlier. Other segments include priority banking, for clients with more than US$100,000 in assets, and premium banking, for those with more than US$25,000 in assets.

This client “up-tiering” contributed to the bank’s double-digit growth in the first quarter from a year ago, Law said. That trend would be a “key source” for the bank to meet its ambitious goal of attracting US$200 billion in global wealth-management business from newly affluent people in the next five years, she added.

Greater interest in diversified investing and higher-return products, compared with time deposits, reflect how affluent clients are dealing with current economic challenges and global trade tensions.

Law said Standard Chartered offered a range of highly sophisticated products that catered to professional investors within the bank’s private-priority segment. The sales volume of these products grew 2.4 times from 2023, driven by certain principal-protected structured products linked to equities and interest rates.