Best Independent Wealth Manager — Investment Advisory

Wang Yanrong general manager Private Banking Department, China Merchants Bank

CHINA MERCHANTS BANK PRIVATE BANKING

A well established private bank with a history of more than 14 years in onshore China, China Merchants Bank Private Banking has been a pioneer in the development of the domestic private banking industry in the country. For the bank, 2021 was a breakthrough year: it advanced on its digitalisation journey and built a novel business proposition to serve Chinese HNW/UHNWIs’ personal as well as enterprise needs.

China’s private banking clientele landscape has shifted rapidly in the last decade. According to China Merchants Bank Private Banking’s wealth report in 2021 — developed in collaboration with consulting firm Bain & Company — the new generation of wealth owners is dominated by young entrepreneurs operating in China’s new economy. The bank was quick to identify the shifting demographics and the ensuing changes in client needs and focused on providing “integrated financial as well as non-financial services”.

CMB Private Banking uses a detailed segmentation strategy for its client base according to their background and banking needs: they range from traditional entrepreneurs, founders of technology firms, second generations, investment-savvy clients, to C-suite professionals. Matching the different needs, the bank offers personalised networking opportunities to clients — from youth conferences, business forums, to inheritance events. In addition, it works with China Merchants Bank’s corporate finance and investment banking business to meet the financing needs of the clients’ businesses.

Since the launch in 2018 of its “exclusive cloud services”, an online banking platform, China Merchants Bank Private Banking has had 26,322 qualified clients under

“In the future, the strategic positioning of China Merchants Bank Private Banking as the engine of big wealth management's value cycle chain will receive an upgrade: the original focus of providing HNW clients with bespoke services will be transformed into providing private bank customers and the enterprises behind them with a unified service — combining investment banking, commercial banking, private banking and fintech.

By continuing to create value for the customer, the bank is determined to become the best wealth manager, the best business partner and the best succession planner and wealth preserver of China's HNWIs.”

- Wang Yanrong, general manager Private Banking Department, China Merchants Bank

the programme, while client AUM in cloud services has soared more than 80.5%. Its digital banking app, “Private Banking Exclusive Zone 3.0”, had a monthly active user number of more than 64,000, as of the end of 3Q21. The bank is in the process of exploring a cross-border model, together with its international business arms CMB International, CMB Wing Lung Bank, CMB Hong Kong Branch, and the private banking business in Hong Kong. It is targeting an open product platform that allows for global investment transactions and a wide range of products, offering advice to clients’ financial assets through a global lens.

For the seventh consecutive year, China Merchants Bank Private Banking has been named Asian Private Banker’s Best Domestic Private Bank – China.

NOAH HOLDINGS LIMITED

Wang Jingbo co-founder and chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Noah Holdings Limited

The vision of progressively shifting away from nonstandard private credit products since 2019 has distinguished Noah from its peers and set up a robust, resilient foundation for the firm to establish a wealth management business model that is both compliant and lucrative for many years to come.

Noah embarked on the journey of standardisation transformation in the third quarter of 2019 and hasn’t distributed any single-counterparty private credit products since. In 2021, the firm completed the redemption of RMB32 billion private credit assets in AUM and became the first player in the market to complete the transformation of its offering to NAVbased products.

While the size of client assets managed by the firm slightly decreased due to redemption of non-standardised assets, Noah managed to not only compensate the loss of transaction revenue from private credit products sales with increased sales of standardized NAV products, including secondary market equity funds and mutual funds.

In a year of tremendous market volatility in China, Noah proved its worth to clients with a diverse, openarchitecture product platform. The wealth manager worked with 18 out of the top 20 mutual funds in China and accumulated roughly RMB90 billion in assets under administration (AUA) in secondary market equity products after the transformation. Noah has been one of the exclusive channels for HNW clients to access many of the top-tier financial products and manages clients’ assets in private equity, real estate, public securities and multi-strategies portfolio via Gopher, Noah’s asset management subsidiary.

To improve operational efficiency and client experience, Noah started its digital transformation

“It is a great honour for us to have Asian Private Banker's recognition on Noah's achievements in 2021. We are very grateful for the long-term trust and support our clients, partners and shareholders place in Noah, which helped us through an unprecedented year of challenges, changes, and ultimately, success.

We are also proud to have a team as resilient and adaptable as Noah’s.

As a practitioner of China’s growing wealth management industry, we thrive to stay client-centric, and continue to provide comprehensive services to clients. Noah is committed to enhance its capabilities in asset allocation advisory, research and investment, as well as product screening, so as to create long-term value for clients. Thanks, APB, for the award again! ”

- Wang Jingbo, co-founder and chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Noah Holdings Limited

early on, systematically upgrading the firm’s technology infrastructure to precisely label and match clients, products and relationship managers. Based on this development, the firm launched the Noah Triangle service model in 2021, surrounding each client with an account representative, a number of solution representatives and a fulfilment representative, which is a relatively junior RM that attends to day-to-day inquiries of the client. This model not only improves the client experience but also allows emerging RM talents to work side by side with an experienced partner in catering to real clients needs.

As a leading wealth manager with a vision to build a successful and sustainable business in Asia’s fastestgrowing market, Noah Holdings is Asian Private Banker’s Best Independent Wealth Manager – China for 2021.