Bank of Singapore to double wealth management staff in Hong Kong to cater to China’s rich
Bank also plans to set up family offices in major Chinese cities this year to help the wealthy with inheritance planning
Bank of Singapore, the private banking arm of Singapore’s second-biggest lender OCBC, plans to double its staff in Hong Kong as it eyes wealth management business from China’s growing number of millionaires and billionaires, according to the bank’s local head.
It has already rented a second floor at Hong Kong’s landmark One International Finance Centre tower and plans to have the increased staffing in place by 2020, Derrick Tan, chief executive of the bank’s Hong Kong branch and global market head of Greater China and North Asia, said at a media briefing last week.
The number of Chinese with investible assets of at least 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) rose to 1.58 million by the end of 2016, about eight times higher than it was a decade ago, according to the latest household wealth report from China Merchants Bank and consultants Bain & Co.
“China is the biggest market for private banking in Asia,” Tan said, adding that the bank’s assets under management in the Greater China area climbed 25 per cent last year. With a total of US$99 billion in assets under management in 2017, Bank of Singapore was ranked the eighth-largest private bank in Asia by Asian Private Banker magazine.
The bank had 10 per cent more relationship managers in the Greater China region last year than in 2016, Tan said, noting that the Hong Kong branch was one of the key drivers behind the rise in assets under management.