17 minute read
44 THE FINAL WORD — The ‘60/40’ portfolio
ICICI SECURITIES
If 2020 was the year of strict COVID-19 lockdowns, stomach-churning market volatility and economic upheaval for India, 2021 was the year of rapid vaccinations, soaring equities and rebounding growth.
Advertisement
For the country’s wealth management industry, that narrative was charted in the performance of ICICI Securities, which Asian Private Banker has handed the accolade for Best Domestic Private Bank – India at its latest annual Awards for Distinction.
The judging panel’s decision was based on the markettopping business performance ICICI Securities turned in during the period under consideration, across metrics including asset gathering, revenue growth, as well the Indian private bank’s efforts to boost its product platform.
During full year 2021, AUM at ICICI Securities not only doubled compared to the bank’s asset base during the nadir of the pandemic a year earlier, but also represented a significant increase over its AUM in 2019. Top line at the private bank during the same period surged by a similar percentage and, perhaps even more significantly, ICICI Securities managed to shift the bulk of its revenue to more stable recurring sources as more clients deployed their assets into longer-term products.
While much of that performance can be attributed to a booming year for India’s capital markets, ICICI Securities in 2021 also forged ahead with product innovation. Among the products launched during the year that caught the judging panel’s attention were those under the ‘Premium Portfolios’. The first, ‘Premium Portfolios: Masters of the Street’, allows clients to invest in hand-picked baskets of stocks
Anupam Guha head Private Wealth Management, ICICI Securities
“The last two years have been unprecedented and have been a harbinger of change, adaptability and innovation. For us it meant active engagement with clients, monitoring their portfolios and helping them to be on course in their financial journey through these tumultuous times.
The journey for us starts with knowing clients better and offering hyper-personalised solutions, aligned with their risk profile and needs across investments, protection and lending. We have used technology to improve client experience and are continuously innovating to ensure that we deliver these solutions through an omni-channel — be it through the traditional RM channel, a digital DIY platform or a digi-assist hybrid model.
The last two years have once again taught us that the core of wealth management has always been asset allocation; that it is impossible to time the markets but that it is possible to assess risk reward and follow it with discipline despite all the news flow and turmoil around us. Passive and Smart Beta strategies, asset allocation solutions and the Digital First approach define the way forward for our business.”
- Anupam Guha, head Private Wealth Management, ICICI Securities
curated by leading Indian fund managers. The second, via a tie-up with US-based Interactive Advisors, gives clients access to international funds managed by leading global investment firms such as State Street Global Advisors and Legg Mason.
That is why ICICI Securities is named Asian Private Banker’s Best Domestic Private Bank – India for 2021.
Nitin Singh MD & CEO, Avendus Wealth Management
AVENDUS WEALTH MANAGEMENT
India’s equity market boom since the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need in the country’s domestic wealth management market for well-researched, quality advice and customised solutions. The presence and accessibility of trustworthy and competent wealth managers to navigate the volatility is best appreciated in such times — as experienced by India’s still nascent financial market and UHNW investors — and that played to the advantage of Avendus Wealth Management (AWM).
For the second consecutive year, the KKR-backed independent wealth manager stood out from its domestic peers in another year of strong business growth. Its assets under management (AUM) hit the US$5 billion mark by the end of 2021, ranking it among the largest independent wealth managers in India. On a percentage basis, AUM was up 57% YoY.
Building on the efforts in the last two years, the firm focused on enhancing its capabilities, adding new ones, and worked rigourously to offer a product suite covering a range of curated, differentiated, market-leading solutions.
Within a single year, the firm added 450 families as clients, drawing on the expertise of a team of more than 40 client relationship managers, who delivered best-inclass solutions for their clients, driving the productivity in terms of AUM and revenue. A team of experts across equity, debt, and alternate products endeavoured to bring a comprehensive suite of well-researched solutions — across asset classes, family office services and wealth lending solutions — to cover the entire spectrum of clients’ evolving needs.
In a show of its commitment to growth, the firm created a stand-alone liquidity event desk in 2021 in order to deepen relationships and be the first port of call for new money events and to stay abreast of the wealth creation in the country.
The impressive 294% YoY jump in revenue could not have been achieved without the firm’s focus on expanding its offerings in the alternative asset class — ranging from funds to direct investment deals. This strategic positioning managed to meet investor demand
“We are proud and humbled to receive this acknowledgment from Asian Private Banker for the second time in a row and would like to thank them for this recognition. This successive win truly highlights the effort and dedication of our team over the years in building a wealth management platform rooted firmly on high-quality talent, differentiated products, and robust governance.
We have grown exponentially in the last 12 to 18 months and we remain committed to lead with exceptional ideas through innovative offerings and ahead of the curve insights. To this, we add our focused “client first” approach for fostering deep engaging relationships and elevate client experience and productivity through an industry-leading digital technology platform.
We are deeply excited of the build-out of our offshore platform in the US and Singapore markets where we will work closely with families to provide access to digital and other opportunities in India."
- Nitin Singh, MD & CEO, Avendus Wealth Management
for access to alternatives — which is less developed domestically. AWM’ unique sourcing ability through its vast fund manager network, its in-house diligence and monitoring of the investments helped it to establish itself as one of the leading Indian wealth managers in alternative investments.
Within the past twelve months alone, AWM raised more than US$500 million in alternative funds and private placements, more than in any previous year. It now has US$760 million AUM in the emerging asset class.
As a name synonymous with growth and a platform that takes a holistic approach and offers a comprehensive suite of solutions across different asset classes (and for different stages of investor wealth), Avendus Wealth Management was picked as Asian Private Banker’s Best Domestic Independent Wealth Manager – India for 2021.
NAB PRIVATE WEALTH
National Australia Bank (NAB) made an extraordinary change over 2020-2021, merging three of its key businesses — the private banking NAB Private, the wealth management arm JBWere, and the digital trading platform nabtrade — to deliver a single, compelling private wealth offering in Australia.
The new NAB Private Wealth is built entirely around what clients need, with the support from the wealth and advice expertise of JBWere. The freshly minted private bank seeks to drive on the three platforms to provide more exclusive investment opportunities, including tailored lending solutions to key clients — business owners, Ultra High Net Worth individuals and major family groups.
NAB Private Wealth has seen major achievements within the space of just a year. As one of the top four private banks in Australia, NAB has A$64 billion assets under advice, becoming one of the top three online traders and the largest margin lending business within the domestic private banks.
The bank proved its resilience and commitment to bring the best investment solutions and private wealth services with tremendous performance from positive client assets growth.
NAB Private Wealth recorded A$7.4 billion growth of Funds Under Management (FUM) last year, where 50% of FUM growth came from new clients, marking a total of 123% climb in Net Fund Flow. On the key private bank business in the land down under – lending, the bank’s home lending book grew to A$1.9 billion, 1.8 times over the market growth rate.
Justin Greiner CEO, JBWere, executive NAB Private Wealth
“I’m incredibly proud that NAB Private Wealth has been acknowledged for its outstanding client service and standards. A massive thank you to our Private Wealth team who works so hard every day to turn our vision of a “world class experience” into a reality.
We look forward to an exciting 2022 as we remain focused on the most important thing of all — delivering for our clients.”
- Justin Greiner, CEO, JBWere, executive NAB Private Wealth
NAB Private Wealth has added over 44,000 new clients to its trading platform nabtrade, in addition to a 12% growth in trading volumes, supporting the growing demand from clients who wish to manage their own investment.
With its pledge to deliver an excellent private wealth experience to clients in both Australia and New Zealand, the bank drives on an integrated operating model — across Private Bank, JBWere and Investment Solutions — to enable a “Team of 3”, allowing experienced private wealth advisers to provide clients with a full suite of offerings meeting their needs in investment, lending, corporates or family services.
The judging panel was impressed by the commitment and success NAB Private Wealth made over the past year and named it Best Domestic Private Bank –Australia in Asian Private Banker’s 2021 Awards for Distinction.
Narit Kosalathip head of Wealth Management Kiatnakin Phatra Securities
KIATNAKIN PHATRA SECURITIES
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing severe disruptions to the Thai economy in 2021, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities managed to deliver a record performance on metrics including AUM and revenue, in addition to hitting landmarks in the development of its discretionary and offshore businesses.
Strong asset and revenue growth during the period under consideration at the Bangkok-based group was delivered in part by Kiatnakin Phatra Securities’ ability to innovate its product offerings.
Arguably the most profound shift in Kiatnakin Phatra Securities’ product offering was the launch of its debut offshore discretionary mandate in October 2020. The product drew on the strength of the group’s existing capabilities in investment advisory to deliver an overall portfolio solution whose open architecture allowed Kiatnakin Phatra Securities to deliver best-in-class third-party managers to clients — a major differentiator compared to some of its peers in the domestic market. Numbers shared with Asian Private Banker showed that the discretionary solution, which comes with a relatively small ticket size, has had strong inflows since its launch.
The judging panel was impressed by improvements made to Kiatnakin Phatra Securities’ private markets platform during the year. In addition to its existing partnerships with KKR & Co and Oaktree Capital, the Thai lender onboarded Blackstone and Brookfield. Over the past 12 months, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities launched three private equity funds focused on strategies including distressed debt and buyouts — all of them heavily oversubscribed by clients.
For Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, 2021 was also characterised by the efforts to ramp up its ETF, offshore equities and Lombard lending programmes, all of which were broadened during the year.
All these enhancements — and broader efforts to encourage clients to take a more holistic, portfolio-
“Our mission statement to be the best global private bank for Thais has guided our continued effort to build the global capability — on top of our strength in local investment and proximity to clients — to deliver the best and seamless solution for them. This award proves our unique talent in deep client understanding as well as strong expertise in bringing relevant global opportunities for our local-bias clients.
The priority to bolster our global capability has greatly benefited not only clients but our business performance as well: despite the challenging environment for most businesses, we achieved a record performance on many counts — a testament to our leading position in the onshore wealth management scene."
- Narit Kosalathip, head of Wealth Management, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities
driven and long-term approach to their investments — helped drive improvements in the revenue mix at Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, with recurring income enjoying robust year-on-year growth.
The judging panel commends Kiatnakin Phatra Securities for its efforts on the digital front during the year. The Thai lender developed and promoted a series of digital investment advisory content — ranging from podcasts, to infographics and video clips — as part of broader efforts to relieve some of the burden on RMs to deliver investment ideas to clients. Kiatnakin Phatra Securities expanded its digitisation efforts as well in 2021, including the integration of e-Signature and DocuSign into contactless and paperless transactions to shorten processing times for the client onboarding process and product subscriptions.
For these reasons, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities is Asian Private Banker’s Best Domestic Private Bank – Thailand for 2021.
Arlene Joan Tanjuaquio-Agustin head of Private Banking Union Bank of the Philippines
UNIONBANK PRIVATE BANKING
Since it was launched in 2019, UnionBank Private Banking has established itself as one of the most recognised private banks in the Philippines, thanks to a focus on “unlocking possibilities” for clients by offering a well-rounded, bespoke, open-architecture wealth management service and advisory.
Despite being a new entrant to the wealth management industry in the Philippines, the bank has delivered a strong performance in 2021, surpassing even its own targets for the year.
UnionBank Private Banking showed a 44% increase in FY21 AUM, with a compound annual growth rate of 35% from 2019 to FY21. In terms of new accounts, the bank garnered a 53% increase in the number of accounts in 21FY compared to 2020.
In the complex and ever-evolving world of wealth management, UnionBank Private Banking understands the importance of pairing a global network of capabilities and expertise, with localised relationships and experience. The bank has formed a strategic alliance with Lombard Odier, providing clients access to holistic wealth management solutions and globally diversified investment portfolios. This has elevated the bank’s service and allowed for global investment capabilities with a “local touch”.
On training talent, the bank draws on its alliance with a global private bank Lombard Odier to acquaint its relationship managers with family office services and ensure a high quality client service, exemplified by regular product and services training, fund briefings; market outlook seminars. UnionBank Private Banking is also planning to expand its manpower in support of its growing business.
In terms of offerings, UnionBank Private Banking has brought into play the platform from its partners to offer clients a holistic succession planning, discretionary and advisory portfolio management, and custody services.
On the funds selection side, the bank enables clients to gain access to over 100,000 offshore investment funds from more than 2,000 fund groups — including some of the largest global fund managers, such as BlackRock and Vanguard.
“It is truly an honour for UnionBank Private Banking to receive this prestigious award for the third year. We are grateful for clients’ unwavering trust and confidence as we unlock possibilities for them, through delivering a premium quality of service, especially during a global pandemic.
In times of uncertainty, clients have turned to us for guidance to manage their investment portfolios. As a bespoke wealth management solutions provider, UnionBank Private Banking has positioned itself as the clients’ partner in navigating their wealth towards financial legacy. It is our mission to fulfil clients’ dream to grow their wealth, accumulate it for the long term, and eventually pass it on to the next generation.
In strategic alliance with global private bank Lombard Odier, we provide world-class investment strategies and advisory services, with a local touch, to the Philippine market.
This is a strong affirmation for UnionBank Private Banking and we look forward to many more years of excellence in the wealth management industry.”
- Arlene Joan Tanjuaquio-Agustin, head of Private Banking, Union Bank of the Philippines
As a pioneer in the promotion of the importance of the next-gen services in the Philippines, UnionBank Private Banking launched its NextGen Academy together with Lombard Odier to educate the nextgens on investment and prepare them for a smooth transition of wealth and the family legacy. The flagship event offers next-gen clients an opportunity to attend multiple relevant courses, across several weeks of workshops and talks.
In 2020, the event was transformed into a digital format allowing the participation of a record 530-plus registrants from different countries and regions.
As a newly established private bank in Asia, UnionBank Private Banking has shown tremendous strength and ambitious strategies to bring the best to its clients. It therefore wins Asian Private Banker’s Best Domestic Private Bank – Philippines 2021 Award for Distinction.
MAYBANK PRIVATE
The ongoing pandemic acted as a two-edged sword for the private wealth management industry in Malaysia: while travel restrictions were in place during most of last year, offshore bankers had a hard time meeting their onshore Malaysian clients during the lockdown.
This created an opportunity for domestic players to build stronger relationships with their multi-banked clients and get involved in business opportunities for which clients used to first reach out to offshore banks. Being a domestic player, Maybank Private managed to grow its wallet share in 2021 by listening to onshore U/ HNW clients and meeting their needs.
As economic activities remain muted, Maybank Private stayed close to meeting the liquidity needs of entrepreneurial clients. The bank revamped its credit initiation process and templates for wealth credit facilities to enhance efficiency, broadening the list of acceptable collateral for Lombard loans and conducting annual reviews to enhance collateral parameters.
Maybank Private equipped the team for these opportunities in 2021 through increased collaboration with the group’s business banking and corporate banking segments, strengthening its capability to meet clients’ business needs such as IPOs and private placements.
Since the pandemic raised the awareness of the need for succession planning, Maybank Private introduced new wealth planning tools to its Malaysian clients in 2021, including private trusts and structures that include Universal Life insurance features.
On the digital front, Maybank Private in Malaysia began its first phase of core platform implementation which will be in line with Maybank Private Singapore and Maybank Premier Singapore, improving operational efficiency across branches while ensuring clients can enjoy a streamlined client experience of the same quality, both onshore and offshore.
Datuk Hamirullah Boorhan head of Community Financial Services Malaysia, Maybank
“It truly is an honour to be recognised by the industry as the best domestic private bank in Malaysia, for the third year in a row. Maybank Private has continuously developed and enhanced its product offerings, strongly emphasised its advisory capabilities and drawn on the strength of its regional network to provide an excellent client experience.
We embarked on some major changes last year, in a bid to prioritise our client journey in a changing environment. Maybank Private launched a new core banking system, providing clients with a holistic view of their investments — facilitating their decisionmaking process.
We also optimised our digital tools, so the team of client advisors can remotely engage with our clients seamlessly. We are truly proud of the team and laud its amazing achievements and its ability to quickly adapt to the new normal."
- Datuk Hamirullah Boorhan, head of Community Financial Services Malaysia, Maybank
As market volatility in 2021 vindicated the importance of professional advice and disciplined investments, Maybank Private saw a significant uptake by onshore clients of multi-asset DPMs, with both equity and fixed income asset allocations. The portion of investment assets in the AUM of Maybank Private was up over 30%, and the investment fee income became the main driver of the bank’s strong double-digit increase in revenue.
This heralds a promising trend for the bank: the ability to advise over a bigger portion of clients’ assets in the future, moving away from a typical pain point of many local players — having a large AUM but mostly stalled as low revenue-generating assets.
