Asian Private Banking Assets Soar
Monday, October 10, 2011

A new survey by Private Banker International shows that assets under management (AuM) held by the top-20 Asia-Pacific banks have increased 76% to nearly USD1 trillion since the last survey of its kind in 2007.

The Top-20 Asia-Pacific Benchmark, which ranks banks by AuM for high-net-worth (HNW) clients with investable assets of more than USD1m, reveals that global banks dominate the top spots. Citi ranked as the leading HNW wealth manager in the region followed by UBS, which narrowly lost its position as the world's largest wealth manager in 2009. HSBC comes a close third creating a three horse race to be the Asia-Pacific region's leading private bank.

The survey also finds that local banks are making progress, with DBS, OCBC's Bank of Singapore and Hang Seng Bank claiming market positions of ninth, 10th and 12th respectively.

According to Private Banker International, the survey results also show that private banks, especially foreign private banks, are shifting their wealth thresholds down and designing new product offerings to chase the region's future wealthy clients focused on the USD1-USD5m band.

Another key finding is that hiring initiatives and intensive training programmes are being used to attract and train new relationship managers as well as retain existing talent.

More integrated services between wealth management and corporate investment banking are also being created to improve client share-of-wallet (the percentage of a customer's expenses for a product that goes to the firm selling the product), particularly in the USD5m-plus entrepreneur-business owner segment, according to the survey.

"This latest survey shows how dramatically the industry's landscape has shifted in the post-financial crisis years," says Nicholas Moody, editor of Private Banker International.

"One of the most interesting aspects is the success retail banks have had in nurturing a pipeline of wealthy clients through their affluent banking channels," Moody adds. "Private banks without a steady stream of clients from retail banking franchises are focusing on increasing market share through hiring initiatives and improving their share of wallet among existing customers."