The purpose of this article is to speculate as to the possible impact of new information technology on the private trust industry in Asia and in particular, Hong Kong. It is quite clear that new technology will obviously present a number of challenges to the global trust industry, not just the industry in Asia, and at one extreme there is the view that the internet revolution could in fact pose a serious threat to the industry. This view and other likely issues are outlined below.
The costs of new technology
For a trustee company, the first issue with new technology must be the issue of cost and having the technical staff to implement changes. This...