NFTs. Digital Currency. Virtual real estate. As modern Hong Kong investors focus on the bright and shiny, the importance of wisdom and traditional values has disappeared. To the modern affluent, the future is cluttered with investment choices. But whom they can trust to provide reliable advice is limited.

To them, HSBC is misconceived as a purely traditional bank. They want to bank with a brand that is responsive, has modern solutions, and shares the same modern values as them.

HSBC understands that. Especially with Hong Kong making up 40% of the global art market’s creation of digital art, a passion topic for these new modern investors, HSBC decided to show them through a digital art piece.

HSBC also had a special piece of real estate that, if it had the right type of experience, would attract the emerging affluent.

HSBC needed to attract a new group of modern investors, those who misperceive HSBC as a purely traditional bank. To remind them that growth comes from being modern and responsive while being built on centuries of wisdom, HSBC turned to what the modern investors value, digital art - especially with Hong Kong making up 40% of the global art market investment.

HSBC turned to real-time data, digital art and a locally famous NFT artist to create an art piece that cemented the philosophy behind the bank’s blend of traditional wisdom and modern solutions to wealth growth. HSBC turned real-time market movements of the stock market, the Hang Seng Index, into a modern Chinese landscape painting.

The Hang Seng Index is the financial pulse of the city. We took the open-source data of the stock market’s movements to outline the silhouette of the Chinese landscape paintings of mountains. Every 10 seconds, the data is recorded and then translated into a mountain which is then formed. Through the normalization technique, mountain peaks and troughs can be seen in one landscape.

Working with ‘HK’s top NFT artist’ Victor Wong, HSBC collected real-time data from the Hang Seng Index to create daily art pieces, ensuring that no two art pieces are ever alike.

Inspired by a Chinese proverb - “You must scale the mountains to view the plains”, HSBC created a modern interpretation of Chinese landscape paintings, also called “Shan Shui” paintings, that represented wealth.

A unique algorithm transformed meticulously illustrated elements of historic HSBC banknotes, such as mountains, trams, trees, birds and more, and the real-time market data of the Hang Seng Index, Hong Kong’s stock market index, into mountain ranges inspired by Hong Kong’s 552 peaks.

Mountains swell in size based on market volatility. Every 10 seconds, a new peak is formed. Every day, an original art piece is created.

This digital art piece became the centrepiece at HSBC’s newest Wealth Centre, where potential and existing clients go to meet their dedicated Relationship Managers. The art piece welcomed over 2,000 people on the first day, as well as was expected to welcome over 15,000 people within the month in the new Wealth Centre.

The art piece is also turned into HSBC’s first-ever NFT, ushering HSBC into a more modern space. There are also plans in place for more art-tech experiences to be fitted in 60 HSBC Wealth Centres.

The art piece was seen by over 2,500 people during the launch and will be displayed at the Wealth Centre and K11 Atelier where over 15,000 people visit every day. HSBC’s art piece was reported in media across Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific, cementing its belief in blending modern solutions with wisdom and traditional values. There are plans in place to place more Art-tech experiences in the 60 HSBC Wealth Centres. HSBC’s art piece had so much overwhelming positivity that HSBC would mint it as its first-ever NFT to put on display at K11’s first-ever digital gallery, which attracts young, modern investors and the affluent in Hong Kong.