Hong Kong lenders offer gold, Dior beauty services to attract wealthy mainland Chinese investors during ‘golden week’

Gold bars, cruises, Dior beauty services and vouchers for Rosewood Hong Kong are among the perks offered by the city’s major banks.

The five-day holiday, which runs from Friday to Tuesday, presents a prime opportunity to market investments, insurance and other wealth-management products – a key growth driver for banks.

HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) – the city’s three largest lenders – along with Citigroup, DBS Bank in Hong Kong, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia), Bank of East Asia and Hang Seng Bank, have extended operating hours at selected branches over the weekend to sign up new customers, offering cash rewards and other incentives.

HSBC Life, the city’s largest life insurer by new business, has partnered with Dior Beauty to provide personalized beauty services at its wealth centre, and is offering a horse racing lunch on Sunday.

The bank is also offering an HKD18,000 (US$2,300) Royal Caribbean cruise suite to customers who invest at least HKD20 million and meet other requirements, in addition to a standard HKD88,000 welcome package.

“Golden week is a rare window when many mainland customers are in Hong Kong at the same time,” said Frankie Yan, head of retail and wealth distribution, retail banking and wealth at HSBC Hong Kong.

“Instead of just a holiday excursion, we know they want to get personal chores done – including banking.”

The Immigration Department expects about 980,000 mainland visitors to enter Hong Kong between Friday and Tuesday, up 7% from the same period last year.

Citibank is offering up to HKD170,000 in cash to new private banking clients and HKD70,000 to Citigold customers, provided they join the city’s investment migration scheme and meet certain investment requirements.

Its International Personal Banking growth in the first quarter was primarily driven by mainland clients, who accounted for 70% of the overall IPB client base as of the end of March 2026 and continue to maintain a steady increase, it said, as reported by The Standard.

Standard Chartered is running a lucky draw for new cross-border private and priority banking clients, with a Rosewood hotel stay worth more than HKD10,000 as the top prize, alongside a cash rebate of HKD68,888 for those who meet specified investment criteria.

Eliza Law, head of the affluent segment and distribution at Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said combining wealth-management advice with entertainment offerings during golden week has proven effective in expanding business.

“Demand for cross-boundary wealth-management services remains strong,” Law said, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. “In May last year, the number of new priority private and priority banking clients recorded double-digit year-on-year growth, reflecting strong demand for wealth-management services among visitors to Hong Kong.”

Bank of China (Hong Kong) has highlighted rising gold prices as a selling point, offering a lucky draw for cross-border customers with a 50-gram gold bar as the top prize. The bar is valued at about HKD58,000 based on end-April prices.

The bank recorded a 30% increase in sign-ups from affluent cross-border customers during last year’s golden week compared with typical weeks.

Golden week typically brings heavier foot traffic to key districts due to overlapping public holidays in Hong Kong and the mainland, said Maggie Yung, head of DBS Treasures and distribution at DBS Hong Kong.

“For DBS, it is an opportunity to engage walk-in visitors, maintain service accessibility and reinforce our presence in high-traffic locations,” she said.

Greater Bay Area customers who sign up for the Wealth Management Connect service through Citibank and invest CNY3 million (US$438,708) will receive a cash rebate of HKD13,000.