(Yicai Global) Sept. 10 -- Chinese regulators have released detailed rules and both Chinese and foreign lenders are scrambling to prepare financial products ahead of the launch of the wealth management connect scheme that will link the mainland with the special administrative regions.

Residents in Hong Kong and Macao will be allowed to open bank accounts on the mainland, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said today.

The Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect will allow individuals in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area to make cross-border investments in wealth management products within a closed-loop capital conduit managed by banks in the area. It will begin with low-risk products.

China will further open the mainland’s capital and bond markets to Hong Kong and Macao investors by launching a wealth management connect scheme and the new southbound leg of its bond connect program, Pan Gongsheng, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, said yesterday.

Interest rates on the mainland are in general quite high and have become increasingly attractive to overseas investors.

The wealth management connect scheme will bring more clients, business and capital inflow to Hong Kong from the mainland, said Wang Dan, chief economist with Hang Seng Bank China. More international financial institutions will start to do business in Hong Kong and it will raise the region’s status as an offshore yuan business hub and asset management center.

Hang Seng Bank China is ready for the connect program and has over 140 types of funds, bonds, Hong Kong dollar- and foreign currency-denominated deposit products to offer investors, Deputy Chairman and President Song Yuesheng said recently.

Editor: Kim Taylor