Hong Kong’s latest Global Financial Leaders’ investment summit, a three-day shindig that started on November 6, was quite an affair.
Last year’s event, entitled ‘Navigating Beyond Uncertainty’, was really a love-letter to the world, beseeching investors and institutions not to forget about the city. Eddie Yue, Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s chirpy chief executive, kicked off proceedings. Financial bigwigs crossed oceans to a city yet to lift pandemic restrictions, including Morgan Stanley chairman and chief executive James Gorman and UBS chairman Colm Kelleher.
But would the same gang reconvene for the second year in a row? You betcha. In fact, the turnout at this year’s event, called ‘Living with Complexity’ (which again sounds less like the title of a financial summit and more like an album of ambient music), was even better.
Gorman and Kelleher joined Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing to discuss financial uncertainty. Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney sat down with Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters to ponder the state of environmental, social and governance issues. And HSBC chief Noel Quinn mulled the future of the cross-border Greater Bay Area with Bank of China chairman Ge Haijiao.
It