Brown Brothers Harriman Launches Hong Kong Trust Company

Tom Burroughes

19 May 2016

, the US-based firm, has launched its Hong Kong trust company, adding to its activities in Ireland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

Gabriel Cheung has been appointed to lead the trustee business, reporting to Scott McLaren, head of BBH in Hong Kong, and Boston-based Matthew Heffernan, senior vice president of institutional trustee services for the firm. Cheung joined BBH in January from HSBC Institutional Trust Services, where he served as senior manager of trustee and fiduciary services. Prior to his time at HSBC, he was associate general counsel at AIA Pension and Trustee in Hong Kong.

The trust company extends BBH’s full-service offering for global asset managers looking to establish Hong Kong-domiciled funds, including exchange traded funds.

The arrival of the Hong Kong/mainland China Mutual Recognition of Funds Regime, enabling funds to be bought and sold across borders in these jurisdictions, is part of how the region’s investment and financial services market is opening up, creating opportunities for firms such as BBH, it said.

"Since the launch of MRF, global fund sponsors have the potential to reach investors in mainland China through Hong Kong-domiciled funds," McLaren said. "From a provider perspective, this is a big change."

He added: "As Hong Kong-domiciled funds evolve from a domestic focus to a cross-border character, globally-active fund managers in particular will require new capability sets and consistent and coordinated practices across fund domiciles. As a cross-border specialist, BBH is well placed to deliver a high quality value proposition to the Hong Kong market."

The potential inclusion of ETFs in Stock Connect, a cross-border initiative launched in 2014 that links the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, would further boost Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a domicile, as Hong Kong-listed ETFs would then be made available to Chinese investors, the firm said.

BBH Hong Kong has been serving Hong Kong based clients for over 20 years. For Hong Kong-domiciled funds, BBH offers full fund services, including trustee services, global custody, fund accounting and administration, transfer agency and foreign exchange.