WeLab Bank, the most innovative bank in Hong Kong, announced the expansion of its wealth management services with the launch of our new Featured Fund Platform. WeLab Bank ventured into wealth management business last year, pioneering a personalized and intelligent investment experience for tech-savvy customers. The Bank debuted its digital wealth advisory solution GoWealth, which was widely welcomed by customers immediately after its launch. Currently, over 10k customers have activated their wealth management accounts, and the number of users and investment amounts are also growing rapidly. Building on the success of GoWealth, WeLab Bank has recently launched a new Featured Fund Platform to create a simpler and more direct fund investment experience.
WeLab Bank has noticed that many customers with investment experience in funds have expressed their dissatisfaction with the traditional trading models. They find it difficult to obtain professional fund recommendations, and the preparation work is complicated with high subscription fees. There is a demand for a disruptive fund platform to rewrite the legacy model. WeLab Bank strives to elevate the market benchmark and address these pain points by helping customers make investment decisions easier. The Featured Fund Platform consolidates the latest market intelligence for customers, provides hottest investment themes and fund choices, and offers greater flexibility and control over their investment strategy. Unlike other similar services in the market, the platform adopts a monthly fee model – a game-changer to the market that it enables customers to adjust their investment portfolios depending on the market condition without incurring additional costs, saving nearly 90% in transaction costs1 compared to other platforms.
To encourage customers to experience the simple, flexible service first-hand, WeLab Bank is waiving all fees from today until 4 August 2023! The Featured Fund Platform will complement the existing digital wealth advisory solution GoWealth by catering to different customer segments.
20 shortlisted hot investment themes
WeLab Bank's Featured Fund Platform offers 20 investment themes in the launch phase, covering funds across multiple asset classes, including AI technology, health science, ESG, and more. Customers can adjust their investment strategies at any time based on their investment strategy and market conditions. Unlike traditional fund trading platforms that only provide transactional functions, WeLab Bank's Featured Fund Platform simplifies the information collection and analysis of fund investments for its customers. The Bank has partnered with top fund managers worldwide (including Allianz Global Investors, BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, Janus Henderson, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, PIMCO, and Schroders) to furnish popular investment themes. It integrates and analyzes industry information on different topics and cherry-picks high-quality funds for each investment theme. With this service, WeLab Bank supports customers to stay on top of market trends and make wise investment decisions. Taking the total return of the past three years as an example2, the ESG equity theme on WeLab Bank's Featured Fund Platform has increased by as high as 37%. The health science and the AI technology themes have also grown by 35.9% and 27.5% respectively.
Hello to monthly fee model, farewell to the expensive charges
WeLab Bank understands that customers want to shake off traditional bank’s commission model that charges on a per-transaction basis; what they need is the freedom to timely adjust their fund allocations based on market conditions. Therefore, WeLab Bank's Featured Fund Platform has adopted a new fee model. Customers are now charged an ultra-low flat monthly fee of just 0.08%3 based on the total value of their selected funds. With this model, investment decisions are no longer hindered by transaction fees and customers can trade their funds as many times as they see fit, saving nearly 90% in transaction costs compared to traditional charging model. From now on, the costs of making investment decisions are greatly axed; customers will be able to seize every market opportunity without the transaction fee hurdle! Even in volatile market conditions, customers can rebalance their portfolios anytime without hassle! From today until 4 August 2023, all Featured Fund Platform customers are entitled to monthly fee waivers!
WeLab Bank Chief Executive Tat Lee said, “WeLab Bank launched the wealth management business last year. For many years, we have been analyzing customers' investment habits and market needs. We have identified two major pain points that many market users face when proactively managing their fund portfolios. Firstly, organizing and analyzing market information is too time-consuming. Secondly, the commission model, which is based on the transaction value and charges per transaction, makes it difficult for customers to dynamically adjust their investment portfolios according to market conditions. To address these challenges, WeLab Bank is proud to introduce the all-new Featured Fund Platform. This service offers a simple and direct fund trading experience that addresses the above pain points. Whether customers wish to actively manage their investment portfolios or entrust their investment plans to our digital wealth advisory solution GoWealth, WeLab Bank is committed to providing a tailored portfolio investment experience for customers with diverse investment needs.”
GoWealth Investment Portfolio Index outperforms the market
Tat also said that since the launch of GoWealth last year, all GoWealth portfolios have delivered satisfactory results. To enable customers to track GoWealth's performance anytime and compare it with major indices in the global market, the Bank has launched the "GoWealth Investment Portfolio Index". The index reflected that over the past six months, GoWealth has recorded remarkable growth, with an increase as high as 16.5%, surpassing the S&P 500's 8.6% increase and the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index's 8.9% increase during the same period4.
To provide a more comprehensive investment experience, WeLab Bank has recently launched the "Market Buzz" feature, offering professional insights such as market analysis reports and investor education materials by Allianz Global Investors. Customers can access it via the homepage of the WeLab Bank mobile app for free, stay ahead of the market trend and capture market opportunities at their fingertips.
Terms and conditions apply. Please visit WeLab Bank official website for details about Featured Fund Platform and monthly fee waiver.
For details about GoWealth Investment Index, please visit WeLab Bank official website.
Disclaimers: The above information is for reference only and does not constitute any offer, solicitation, recommendation, comment or any guarantee to the purchase or sale of any investment products or services. The investment products or services are not equivalent to, nor should it be treated as a substitute for, time deposit. Investment involves risks, the value of investment products may go up or down and the investment products may even become valueless. The contents above have not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission.
Remarks
1The fund platform fee of a month is an aggregate amount of the daily fee within the month. Daily fee is calculated based on the daily market value of all your settled fund holdings in HKD (or HKD equivalent based on daily reference rate) under Featured Funds Services, excluding all money market fund holdings, multiplied by the fund platform fee monthly rate and divided by the number of calendar days of the month. For fund asset class information, please refer to the fund details page in WeLab Bank app.
2The return figure of a category is the highest return figure of the funds under the category. The return figures are provided by Morningstar Asia Limited and are for information only. We do not take responsibility for and do not endorse the accuracy of such information.
3Assuming the subscription fee rate is 2%, customers who use our Featured Funds Services can save 88% of transaction costs in the above two examples compared with the traditional charging model charging with subscription fee. The examples above are for illustration purposes only. Before making any investment decisions, you should consider your own financial situation, investment objectives and experiences, risk acceptance and ability to understand the nature and risks of the relevant product(s).
4 As of 30 April 2023, the last six-month performance of GoWealth Mixed Asset Portfolio Index is 16.5%. The performance of S&P500 is linked to the U.S. S&P 500 Total Return Index (USD). As of 30 April 2023, the last 6 months performance of the U.S. S&P 500 Total Return Index (USD) and Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index (Global Bond Index) are 8.6% and 8.9% respectively. You cannot invest directly in the index and the performance excludes all fees and taxes, and any foreign currency conversion costs and charges. The comparison is for reference only, and is not an investment analysis or advice.
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About WeLab Bank
Welab Bank Limited (“WeLab Bank” or the “Bank”) is the most innovative company named by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Founded by a team of financial and technology experts, WeLab Bank’s mission is to understand customers’ needs and design a personalized, intelligent banking experience that helps them manage, save and grow their money. WeLab Bank represents a 100% digital banking experience that is simple, intuitive, and built around our customers. It focuses on the powerful mobile app and multiple intelligent banking services, and delivers an innovative banking experience through partnering with reputable brands including Allianz Global Investors, Tesla and Apple Authorized Resellers.
WeLab Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of WeLab Holdings Limited (“WeLab”), a leading pan-Asian fintech platform. WeLab provides a wide range of digital financial services with leading positions in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Indonesia, with around 60 million individual users and over 700 enterprise customers. In Hong Kong, one in 4.3 tech-savvy young adults is a WeLab user, reflecting WeLab being the preferred fintech partner in the market.
WeLab is backed by the most renowned investors including Allianz, International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CK Hutchison’s TOM Group, and Sequoia Capital.
To learn more, please visit www.welab.bank and www.welab.co. Follow WeLab Bank on Instagram: welab.bank.
Media enquiry:
Franky Chan
WeLab Bank Communications Team
Email: [email protected]