Regulations prevent the Asian city's finance professionals from putting their considerable investable income to work.

Personal account dealing (PAD) restrictions discourage Hong Kong finance professionals from investing HK$35.8 billion ($4.6 billion) of annual investable income, according to a report by Quinlan & Associates, a Hong Kong strategy consultancy, and Endowus, a digital wealth platform.

The figure covers staff at more heavily regulated firms such as banks, brokers and asset managers. Only 30 per cent of the city’s finance professionals feel good about their retirement planning, and 33 per cent say their employer should do more to help them plan for the long term, according to the report, Investing in the Clear – Streamlining the Employee Personal Account Dealing (PAD) Experience at Financial Institutions.

PAD rules exist to prevent insider trading and manage conflicts of interest. In practice, employees must declare accounts, trade through approved brokers, seek approval for each trade and hold positions for minimum periods. Restricted lists and blackout periods can delay or block transactions, and the process restarts when staff change employers. The report finds that this burden, and the fear of an accidental breach, leads many to hold back from investing.

“The professionals who keep Hong Kong’s financial system running face three key pain points of limited choices, heightened risk, and an inferior investing experience in their end-to-end investment journey, as a result of strict personal account dealing (PAD) restrictions,” said Benjamin Quinlan, chief executive and managing partner of Quinlan & Associates.

Employers show limited appetite to act. Rising benefits costs are their top concern, and only 11 per cent regard employee financial wellbeing as the main goal of their benefits programmes.

The report’s proposed remedy is an employee investment programme, under which a firm offers staff a pre-approved fund list through a regulated platform. 

Its platform data show Hong Kong finance professionals on these programmes earned an average money-weighted return of 17.0 per cent in 2025, against 10.6 per cent for other finance professionals using its funds platform. Some 80 per cent added money during the year, compared with 48 per cent. Endowus cautions that the figures are historical aggregates across differing portfolios and risk profiles, and do not show that the programme structure itself produces higher returns.

Endowus, which holds licences from the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, reports more than $13 billion in group assets under advice as of June 2026. Its backers include UBS, Citi Ventures and MUFG Innovation Partners.