The growth is a channel story before it is a house-performance story. Reuters reported on 15 September 2026 that the Pictet Strategic Income Fund, a Hong Kong-domiciled global multi-asset vehicle, had reached $5.1 billion of assets from $1.6 billion at the beginning of the year.
About 60 per cent of the fund’s AUM came from mainland Chinese retail market through the Mutual Recognition of Funds (MRF) scheme.
Freeman Tsang, head of intermediaries for Asia ex-Japan at Pictet Asset Management
That scheme is the licensed path. Qualified Hong Kong funds may be sold on the mainland. The same Reuters report ties the inflows to tighter scrutiny this year of offshore investing through unlicensed brokerage accounts. Demand did not disappear. It moved into a product that can be held inside a recognised wrapper.
Morningstar data cited in the same report put the fund first among 34 MRF vehicles for mainland net inflows in the first half of 2026, at HK$16.3 billion. An August fund newsletter listed US Treasuries and gold among the top ten holdings, alongside Amazon, Alphabet and Nvidia. That is a multi-asset income book with a listed-growth sleeve, not a China A-share vehicle and not a private-markets feeder.
For private-bank DPM desks and for wholesale teams that sell into intermediaries, the allocation content is the mix the mainland buyer is willing to hold once the unlicensed route is closed: duration and gold as ballast, listed AI-supply-chain equity as the growth expression, inside a Hong Kong-domiciled fund that clears MRF. That is a different risk budget from a Singapore-listed equity DPM mandate and from an onshore China fixed-income book.
The implied competitor set is other MRF-eligible multi-asset and income funds, not the entire Asia wealth shelf. Penetration will be constrained by quota, eligibility and how mainland distributors allocate shelf space. The $5.1 billion figure is one vehicle. It is not the size of the southbound wealth stock.
What the filing and the interview do not support is a claim that family offices have abandoned direct overseas accounts, or that every private bank in Hong Kong is capturing this flow. The documented fact is a licensed multi-asset fund, a 60 per cent mainland share via MRF, and a holding list that is global and listed.
Wealth platforms that want this ticket need the licence path, the income-plus-growth construction, and a distribution relationship that already sits on the MRF shelf. Product that cannot enter that channel is a different conversation.