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HSBC debuts WorldTrader digital platform in UAE
Demand for wealth services from mass affluent customers in Middle East state surges
The Asset 25 Jun 2024

London-headquartered, Asia-focused bank HSBC has launched its WorldTrader digital investment platform in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with select markets in Asia and the Middle East to follow.

The digital-only platform, which is powered by retail broker Interactive Brokers, allows customers access via mobile app or online banking to a wide range of trading and investment opportunities – among them, trade equities, exchange-traded funds and bonds – in up to 25 markets and 77 exchanges globally.

Mass affluent customers are increasingly engaging in investing opportunities, the HSBC Affluent Investor Snapshot – Quality of Life Report 2024 indicates, with global growth rates for brokerage services ranging from 25% to 30%.

As well, simplicity, sophistication in user experience, access to global exchanges and security, the report highlights, are all top priorities when customers select an investment platform.

To directly address these customer needs, the bank says, it has “combined unrivalled global reach and a reputation for stability with a leading online broker”. Interactive Brokers offers automated trade execution and custody for a wide variety of electronically traded products around the clock in over 150 markets.

Demand for wealth services in the UAE has surged, the report points out, with an increasingly digitally savvy population, making it the perfect launchpad for this platform. More than half (55%) of the investors in the UAE surveyed in the report plan to increase investments in other markets.

The UAE is also one of the most engaged segments, investing on average five times per month and monitoring their investments on average 10 times per month, tied only with India for the highest frequency of the 11 markets surveyed – Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, mainland China, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE, UK and US.

Nuno Matos, the bank’s CEO for wealth and personal banking, adds: “WorldTrader provides investors – both established and new – a secure way to trade and manage their investments on a fully digital platform.”