Just a third of Hongkongers trust financial advisers, survey finds

Only 35 per cent of Hong Kong investors completely trust the financial services industry, making them the most sceptical in Asia, according to a survey by the CFA Institute. 

Furthermore, only 7 per cent of respondents believe that financial advisers always put clients’ interests first – the smallest proportion out of all markets surveyed, and far lower than the 35 per cent global average.  

“Hongkongers feel that they are the last group of people whom their advisers would put first,” said Nick Pollard, Asia-Pacific managing director of the CFA Institute, a global association of finance professionals. “So there’s clearly a big gap between their expectations and what they feel is being delivered at the moment.” 

The survey was completed by 3,000 retail investors in 12 markets worldwide.

The financial services industry’s trust score has got progressively worse among Hong Kong investors during the three years the survey has been conducted, Pollard noted. 

The major concern raised by Hong Kong investors in the survey was financial advisers’ lack of transparency regarding fees and communication. 

But Hong Kong was not the only region in the world where investors lacked confidence in their financial advisers. Only 31 per cent of investors in the UK and Australia trusted the industry, while Germany scored just 24 per cent.