As a famous international city with sound legal and financial infrastructure, it is not surprising in the past many foreigners may stop by Hong Kong and open his personal bank account or even setup a Company here for accumulation of their wealth here on asset protection consideration. Would this worth continue to do so after 2018?  Hong Kong has committed to implement to Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) for exchange of account information regarding the Reportable Accounts with a Reportable Financial Institution in a Reportable Jurisdiction.

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed in response to the G20 request and approved by the OECD Council on 15 July 2014, calls on jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information with other jurisdictions on an annual basis. It sets out the financial account information to be exchanged, the financial institutions required to report, the different types of accounts and taxpayers covered, as well as common due diligence procedures to be followed by financial institutions

While the personal bank account held by a foreigner from a Reportable Jurisdiction would be a very clear a Reportable Account, it worth to draw attention there could be a wider approach that may affect your further investment strategy. It could be still too early to conclude on this but for sure this is necessary to keep an eye on this development if you have interest to embark on foreign investment.