Industry

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In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic irrevocably changed the private banking industry and your own bank's approach to operations and service?

Tee Fong Seng, Pictet Wealth Management Asia

The financial industry has had to rapidly evolve and adapt under the new circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. This posed challenges as well as opportunities for the banking sector. Challenges, as most industries, if not all, have seen a compression of revenues and increase in costs, which is likely to lead to more consolidation. The pandemic has also brought opportunities for the sector, accelerating the pace of digital transformation among private banks — to mention just one.

As far as Pictet is concerned, we have always been focused on organic growth, so we were not affected by this wave of consolidation. We have always believed in acquiring one client at a time, hiring one staff member at a time, a strategy that has been working very well for us.

At the same time, we have had to develop new ways of communicating with clients, through webinars or video calls, while most of our staff was working from home. We believe this digital transformation will pave the future for an industry that was, until not too long ago, relying almost entirely on face-to-face interactions.

François Monnet, Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia Pacific

COVID-19 has without a doubt accelerated technology adoption and has spurred a survival-of-the-fittest landscape. Companies that are able to adapt, innovate and evolve their business model to capitalise on opportunities in the digital world will thrive.

At Credit Suisse, our continuous innovation journey in the last few years has placed us in good stead to be the private bank that is at the forefront of technological innovation.

As digitalisation remains a key strategic long-term driver and enabler of sustainable business growth, we have continued investing in and strengthening our digital capabilities.

In 2020, we rapidly exploited our innovative and pioneering digital private banking platform and channels since the start of the pandemic to drive digital engagement with clients on a larger and broader scale. There was an almost instantaneous adjustment of our service delivery model where our business traffic on Credit Suisse Chat and our Digital Private Banking platforms surged and an exceptionally high volume of trades was executed.

We continue to communicate via innovative channels and approaches, such as webinars, calls, podcasts and videos to update clients on key investment themes. Through these channels, we provided thought leadership and guidance to our clients, and we expect technology and digitalisation to only become more prevalent as we move forward.

For us, ensuring that our digital capabilities are at the leading edge is key to making Credit Suisse fit for the future.

Vincent Chui, Morgan Stanley Bank Asia Limited

The pandemic has unwittingly acted as a catalyst for investors, banks and regulators to accept and embrace technology as a legitimate communication and governance tool. It has compelled investors and RMs to get comfortable with virtual meetings rather than physical ones. It has also forced individual banks to have a reality check of their remote technology competence and business continuity planning. The pandemic may well prove to be the most significant enabler of fintech and regtech in the financial services industry.

Cedric Lizin, Standard Chartered Bank

The private banking industry as we know it, characterised by high-touch and personal relationships, has adapted in 2020 with the pandemic. While the industry was gradually embracing digital, the pace greatly accelerated in 2020.

We witnessed an uptick in digital adoption rate. New client sign-ups to our SC Private Banking app increased over 30% in 2020 and the average time spent on the app increased too.

Many initiatives already in the works have been fast-tracked. These were primarily initiatives that improve our engagement with clients, the productivity of our bankers, and the efficiency of internal processes.

For instance, we accelerated the digitalisation of our account opening process and are now using video-calls to verify identity documents, and e-signatures for account opening documents instead of wet signatures on hard copies. We rolled out new features in our mobile app, such as more personalised content or dynamic portfolio performance views. We launched a video-based roleplay training programme for RMs to practise and perfect their virtual client communications skills through a series of scenarios.

Next to these client-facing initiatives, we digitalised a series of internal processes, such as moving to e-instructions and removing all paper exchanges between departments. This has greatly improved the turnaround times of many of our internal processes.

Finally, we are engaging with our offshore clients through video calls instead of travelling. We see a hybrid model of engagement becoming a norm in private banking where clients increasingly use digital channels to engage with us — in addition to direct interactions with the RM.

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INDUSTRY

Anirudha Taparia, IIFL Wealth Management Ltd

One of the main things that COVID-19 has precipitated is an active shift towards risk management. The events of the year gone by, whether it was the pandemic itself or measures such as lockdowns and social distancing taken to halt the spread of the pandemic, have put a spotlight on risk management. While most organisations, including ours, had a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place, implementing the same effectively was the differentiator and I believe we scored well. Further, the pandemic has highlighted the relevance of technology and the integral role that it is going to play in the organisation of the future.

With homegrown expertise, a dedicated team, strong balance sheet and technological edge, we have emerged as one of the leading players in the Indian wealth management industry.

Sonjoy Phukan, Bank of Singapore

The wealth management industry was already responding to digital disruption before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has presented us with many uncertainties – from economic outlooks and operating models to client behaviours and the pace of digital adoption. For some organisations, near-term survival is the only item on their agenda. It has tested how well we, as leaders, peer through the fog of uncertainty, proactively plan for recovery and effectively lead and thrive in the next normal.

At Bank of Singapore, we have significantly accelerated our digital roadmap with a focus on client experience. Time-to-market has been reduced from months to weeks or days. We recognise that competing and winning in the new normal will require a new approach, one where we shift away from traditional organisational structures, behaviours, tools and processes.

The pandemic has not only reshaped our clients’ expectations, but also forced us to adapt and pivot quickly. Our view remains that the RM will remain central to the advisory model, but supported by strong digital capabilities.

COVID-19 has reinforced our digital narrative in two ways that will be imperative to our transformation in 2021, and beyond. Firstly, the ability to deliver personalised content and alerts to clients through their desired channels, while also keeping our RMs informed. And, secondly, the increase in digital adoption, together with an increasingly demanding client base, will mean that we need to offer more self-serve capabilities to our clients.

Steven Lo, Citi Private Bank Asia Pacific

To a certain extent, we were taken by surprise by how this pandemic would deeply alter our lives and the way we work. Although we do have WFH (work from home) systems set up, we had never tested them that widely and so we had to catch up fast — and we did. Admittedly it was awkward at first as VPN phones are a bit cumbersome and the availability of other equipment like laptops may have been low. But I am proud to say that our staff did an amazing job at adapting and making sure we were up and running quickly — to the extent that clients really didn’t see any interruptions to our ability to serve them. I think being a large organisation enables us to be able to draw from built-in backup and resources that a small firm would not have. The most important lesson and observation made during this time is not to underestimate the value of the adaptability and dedication of your staff. Without that mindset, your business will always be at risk. I am grateful and also proud that our staff have that mindset to overcome challenges in their determination to serve our clients.

Terence Chow, RBC Wealth Management Asia

The private banking industry has proven itself to be very resilient. When the need arose, the pandemic showed how quickly the industry can make decisions and implement technology solutions. It would be great to see this innovation continue. Across the board we have seen higher levels of client engagement, with conversations becoming much more personal. We believe this trend will continue, as restrictions ease and there is a return to ‘normality’.

Like all businesses, RBC Wealth Management made a number of changes to the way we operate in response to COVID-19. Solutions were quickly identified and put into place to maintain service levels and operations and to strengthen client relationships. Virtual meetings quickly became the norm and, in particular, we have found connecting with colleagues worldwide to be far easier, with everyone adjusting to technology and time zones to coordinate and serve our clients’ multijurisdictional needs.

Michael Blake, UBP

We have become more digital in terms of how we work with clients and across teams. This is here to stay. However, in the past, the digitalisation debate was often presented as a zero-sum game between the competing models of robo-advisory and high touch relationship management. COVID-19 has shown that digitalisation isn’t just about building “low-touch” client systems, but is also about ensuring strong IT resilience to support higher-touch relationship management, which UHNW clients rightly expect.

Nitin Jain, Edelweiss Wealth Management

Though 2020 was a year of crisis, in many ways it was also a catalyst for transformation – be it the way we do business or how we manage our day to day lives. We could have never imagined a world where we are able to engage with our clients so meaningfully over the digital platform. Interestingly enough, we have been able to add net new money, onboard new clients, and were able to execute significantly large transactions without having to meet the client physically — which before COVID-19 was unheard of. Even our NPS score has gone up in the last year, which has added to our delight.

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INDUSTRY

Anupam Guha, ICICI Securities Limited

The pandemic has been difficult for firms which are laggards in digital transformation.

We have seen client transactions move to digital channels such as mobile apps and websites. Products that were traditionally offline (PMS, Alternates etc.) are now moving to online channels of execution.

Client meetings and services have also moved from face-to-face to online. CICI securities has always been among the front-runners in digital investment in India. We saw new client additions increase during the pandemic as clients from traditional offline brokers and wealth managers flocked to wealth managers such as ourselves.

Client acquisition has become digital - completely online onboarding enables customers to open an account in just 10 minutes.

Client engagement has moved to online channels – while most of our products are available on the digital platform, RMs have started using video calls to engage with clients more effectively.

At the same time, client reporting & RM reporting has been enhanced. We have also put a lot of effort into strengthening our data security and risk management frameworks.

Lok Yim, Deutsche Bank

Digitalisation is a critical part of the private banking industry’s efforts to respond to the impact of COVID-19. As a bank, we are well-equipped to handle day-to-day business remotely. Our systems are fully set up and operational with fantastic IT support to see us through this crisis.

Furthermore, our CIO and the investment team are well geared to work through the potential economic impact of COVID-19 and create robust and diversified portfolios to meet the current challenges.

Early in 2020, we launched our Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) fund offering to help our clients focus on the long term and build their core portfolios by harnessing the expertise and robustness of our portfolio construction and capital market assumptions. Empirical evidence shows that long-term portfolio performance comes from asset allocation and the right investment strategy, rather than from market timing. Therefore, it is imperative that investors should focus their attention on constructing a well-diversified asset allocation strategy.

Our robust approach to SAA helps our clients mitigate the adverse effects of volatility and build their core portfolio over the long term, with the option of advanced risk controls. We believe it is necessary to factor in the level of uncertainty that can be applied to each parameter of each forecast. SAA can create portfolios that are less sensitive to adverse market conditions, avoid the additional costs required to adjust portfolios that rely on more uncertain forecasts, and have higher potential for growth over the long term within a given level of risk.

Shang Xiao, CreditEase Wealth Management

Offline servicing was dominant in the private banking sector. We used to acquire new customers and establish trust via frequent face-to-face interactions. During the pandemic, various restrictions greatly affected traditional financial services, but also made customers more likely to accept digitalisation. In this sense, we have been able to embrace customers through digital channels, which has contributed significantly to our growth.

Our long-term accumulated digital capabilities have helped us make breakthroughs in several dimensions, such as providing investor education services via live broadcasts; digital marketing via apps, WeChat, SEO, and SEM [search engine marketing]; allowing end-to-end online transactions; and realising a 1 + N professional team service model via online interaction, where one account manager serves as the contact point for the professional service team and various product/service experts.

Arnaud Tellier, BNP Paribas Wealth Management

COVID-19 has demonstrated the resilience of the human spirit to surmount challenges and quickly adapt to the 'new normal’. Although the current pandemic is not something that anyone could have anticipated, it provides a perfect opportunity for testing the agility and efficiency of front and back office-focused digital solutions that we have developed.

We have redefined workflows, streamlined operations and rewritten the rules of engagement. We adapt to an evolving situation in the various markets in which we operate in order to ensure the safety of staff and continue to provide service and support to clients as much as we can. Many of our client-centric applications are already available on myWealth, our e-banking platform. The launch of myAdvisory, the digital leg of our advisory service, in mid-2020 is a major step for us in blending human and technological capabilities to deliver the full value of BNP Paribas Wealth Management offerings to clients. In addition, we use traditional tools (such as emails and phone calls) and non-traditional tools (including webinars and audio conference calls) to update clients on various investment opportunities.

We will continue to make full use of digital tools in client interactions and expect that such formats will become an important and regular feature in our business model.

Joseph Poon, DBS Private Bank

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented jolt to our industry. However, our established digital platform allowed us to nimbly move client interactions online when COVID-19 emerged. In fact, the ease of using our virtual channels helped to increase, enhance and enrich our client conversations. Our digital platform was an added enabler in giving clients uninterrupted access to our insights, advice and support throughout a period of great market uncertainty in 2Q20.

DBS iWealth, our digital banking and wealth management platform where over 80% of our wealth clients are registered users, allowed them to monitor and manage their portfolios from the comfort, convenience and safety of their homes at all times. With the pandemic’s long shadow continuing to loom over us for some time to come, our digital capabilities will continue to play an important role in ensuring our clients have access to our advice, and tools to monitor and manage their investments in what is likely to remain choppy markets in the months ahead.

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Omar Shokur, Indosuez Wealth Management

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the industry to be able to adapt to a fully work-from-home scenario. Doing this whilst still providing a seamless client experience is no small feat. Basically the industry, globally, has readied itself to be operating fully functional according to the most extreme backup plan for prolonged periods of time.

Tan Siew Meng, HSBC Private Banking Asia

COVID-19 pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption of digital technology within the banking industry. In the absence of travel, we have grown accustomed to virtual meetings, which has helped us build our relationships with clients in these unprecedented times. At HSBC, we are committed to investing in our digital banking capabilities to support and enhance personal services to clients.

August Hatecke, UBS Global Wealth Management

Despite COVID-19, UBS Global Wealth Management in APAC has seen growth in our performance and is the strongest region with record profit before tax (PBT) growth in Q3 2020. This recent quarter marks the best Q3 and best 9M PBT in a decade globally.

We are the first in the industry to achieve US$500 billion in invested assets. UBS Global Wealth Management in APAC today contributes 30% to UBS Global Wealth Management overall.

We understand our clients beyond their wealth needs and we have stayed close to them during the pandemic. Our most recent client survey can testify to that: about 90% of our clients are happy and satisfied with UBS (87%) and their Client Advisors (92%).

We adapt and engage our clients virtually in a seamless manner. Our digitalreadiness has prepared us for all situations. This outbreak has accelerated our plans and our hybrid client service model from high-tech to high-touch. This model ensures that there is no compromise to our service. So even without meeting our clients, we are talking to them every day on the phone and video conferences.

The COVID-19 outbreak has created new ways of doing business. Some of these innovations will remain post-COVID-19. However, video calls and virtual events will not replace the basic human need for face-to-face interactions. Will there still be business travel? For sure. Do we need to travel as much as before? That is the question.

Our client engagement increased substantially in 2020 with clients having more time to discuss investments and the use of video calls. Our CIO team, client advisors and solutions specialists interacted more with clients, with more meetings, increased productivity and effectiveness. We believe that this is the new normal. Our client events have gone virtual and a hybrid model of virtual cum physical can be expected after COVID-19. Our flagship event, UBS Year Ahead 2021, themed, The Next Big Thing, will be held virtually in January for the first time ever. The silver lining is the ability to access UBS’s global network of subject matter experts. For our clients, the experience would be akin to attending a global conference with experts speaking from NYC, London, Shanghai. This easier access to our first class network will irrevocably upgrade what we can offer clients in future.

Client needs have changed with COVID-19 and we believe that there will be many more conversations on wealth planning and succession planning topics. Hence clients will be looking to work more closely with private banks that have the ability to offer a holistic one bank approach. Our UBS Wealth Way provides advice beyond investments.

We continued to adapt and innovate during this time. For example, given travel restrictions, we launched a Digital Onboarding process for Singapore in August. With the UBS Welcome App, prospects can certify ID copies with the ease of a video call, which will help eliminate travel needs for ID verification.

In fact, the COVID-19 outbreak does not make our business “become digital”, it simply accelerated our plans and helped to make some decisions faster.

At UBS, we always consider employee health and well-being as our top priority. We listen to our staff all the time, we understand everyone has difference challenges during the outbreak and while we enable most of our staff WFH, we support our employees to ensure that they are comfortable, safe and healthy by offering a wide range of health benefits and wellness programmes in order to lead our staff a healthier lifestyle.

Wang Ya, Private Banking Centre of Bank of China

The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably affected the private banking industry, which has traditionally relied on customised and face-to-face servicing. At the same time, the pandemic has brought opportunities for the further development of customer relationship management and business models.

Firstly, we have seen growing demand for inheritance services. The pandemic outbreak enhanced customers’ risk management awareness, leading to a greater demand for services such as family wealth protection and family trust service. Also, the pandemic has accelerated the need for online and digital services across the advisory process. In order to break through the "time and space limitations" to serve our customers, we have actively adapted to the trend of online transformation and increased investment in systems and mobile application development. Despite the fact that the pandemic has inevitably discouraged face-to-face interactions with customers to exchange ideas , it has not prevented us from accurately delivering high-quality services to our customers in need.

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INDUSTRY

Few can deny the importance of Asia's onshore wealth markets — in terms of asset pools and the need for wealth management from increasingly sophisticated domestic investors. What opportunities do these markets bring to your business, and to what extent will 'onshoring' shape your strategic agenda?

Benjamin Cavalli, Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia Pacific

Accessing onshore wealth across Asia can be complex due to varied business and regulatory environments in this vastly heterogeneous region.

At Credit Suisse, we believe in having a strong onshore strategy, which will continue to be a top priority for us.

We have been expanding our regional footprint into onshore markets and now have the most diversified onshore/offshore footprint in the industry, and are well positioned to capture opportunities in the region.

Beyond the Hong Kong and Singapore regional wealth hubs, we have built very successful onshore businesses for over 10 years in the largest wealth markets in the region. Since 2017, we have expanded our onshore wealth management services to cover Australia, India, Japan, and Thailand. We also serve clients based in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan clients through our international hubs.

We are the only true global player that is welldiversified in APAC as we are geographically spread across the whole region.

We will continue to evaluate opportunities to make the most of our well-established investment banking footprint across the region, where it has a decadeslong history in most markets. Another key focus is to cement our position as the “Bank for Entrepreneurs” in every market.

Vincent Chui, Morgan Stanley Bank Asia Limited

Historically, “onshoring” for international banks in wealth management has been a challenging task. For those that have had a long presence in key onshore markets such as Japan, Taiwan, Korea and India, their market share remains dwarfed by the big local onshore banks.

Would emerging onshore opportunities in China or Thailand be different? Maybe, and different banks have different regulatory risk appetites and resources to explore onshore opportunities. For the UHNW segment, customers have very distinct onshore and offshore needs. International banks are in an excellent position to satisfy their offshore needs and, through collaboration with onshore players, can provide global products white-labelled as onshore products. As these economies grow and the number and size of the UHNW segment expands, there are more than enough opportunities for international banks to operate an offshore model profitably in the next five years.

Cedric Lizin, Standard Chartered Bank

We see the trend of more individuals keeping their wealth onshore in Asia. We are looking at two opportunities in this respect: expanding onshore and offering offshore solutions based on onshore assets.

Many HNW individuals have their businesses and assets onshore and need funding and wealth advice. This presents tremendous opportunities for Standard Chartered as we have had an onshore presence in many markets in Asia for a long time — some for more than 160 years. Our onshore Commercial Banking and Corporate Banking businesses for example already cover the businesses of many HNWIs and UHNWIs.

Today, we have a wealth management offering in 13 Asian retail markets onshore on top of a global private banking offering. We are considering the needs of our affluent and HNW/UHNW clients holistically in order to provide an integrated offering to service this continuum of clients.

We are also exploring onshore JV opportunities with local players in a couple of markets in Asia.

Thanks to Standard Chartered’s extensive onshore presence in emerging markets, we are already offering solutions to clients where they can make investments offshore based on their assets onshore. We are working on expanding such solutions.

Steven Lo, Citi Private Bank Asia Pacific

Citi has an onshore setup in Hong Kong, Singapore, and India where we serve clients from around the region. Setting up operations onshore is a serious endeavour and not to be taken lightly. It cannot be a “hobby”. The challenge in making an onshore operations viable is to ensure that you have enough product and service differentiation to compete in that local space. For instance, take the Greater Bay area. We could look at a potential local setup there because we can draw on the strength of the insights and experience of our Citi network, which already has a presence there.

Terence Chow, RBC Wealth Management Asia

In Singapore, the industry and government have been making it more attractive for family offices to move their operations onshore. The point is not necessarily to bring all assets onshore, but to create a hub for family offices to operate and thrive. The industry and government have been very accommodative and innovative with new structures such as Variable Capital Companies (VCC), which attract capital that may have otherwise been used within an offshore fund.

A number of wealthy families from around the world have chosen Singapore and Hong Kong as their new or alternate home bases in the region in order to access local markets and talent and to benefit from preferential tax treatment.

Hong Kong is already an onshore market due to both domestic Hong Kong SAR wealth and the accelerated inflow of Chinese wealth from individuals who are coming to live in Hong Kong, and the outlook is extremely positive. Through the A share Stock Connect scheme, and as the GBA Wealth Management Connect scheme evolves, Hong Kong should thrive as a hybrid onshore-offshore market.

Michael Blake, UBP

International wealth management remains our core proposition: we see increasing flows to international financial centres, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore, supported by the growth of family offices in the region and the continued internationalisation of regional wealth.

At the same time, we retain an open mind about domestic partnership opportunities. Local client proximity combined with international investment expertise is a winning combination on paper. The question is how best – and with whom – to bring it to life.

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INDUSTRY

Nitin Jain, Edelweiss Wealth Management

The Indian wealth management industry is largely an onshore business due to capital account convertibility restrictions.

Indians have historically been big investors in traditional asset classes like real estate and gold, and it is only now they are beginning to understand the value of asset allocation and diversification.

Alternatives as an asset class are beginning to emerge, and Indian investors – both institutional and individuals who have had very limited exposure to the private markets – are beginning to take interest.

Anupam Guha, ICICI Securities Limited

ICICI Securities is predominantly an onshore player. We see India as a large market with huge opportunities for growth. Our focus, therefore, has been on Global Indians. We have our digital platform at the core of our proposition, well complimented by RMs in a hybrid model of execution.

In advisory business, we are moving towards more value-added services – straddling the financial and non-financial needs of our clients – including estate planning, tax advisory, etc.

Lok Yim, Deutsche Bank

We combined our Wealth Management and Private and Commercial Business International units into a new International Private Bank in June 2020, serving 3.4 million private, wealth and commercial clients. The International Private Bank brings together Wealth Management’s globally connected clients across Germany, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East and Africa, along with private clients and small and mediumsized enterprises in Italy, Spain, Belgium and India. The business has around €250 billion of assets under management and a combined revenue of approximately €3 billion.

Combining our internationally focused Private Bank businesses is allowing us to make the most of each other’s strengths and develop our market share within and across local markets. We will be able to provide greater access for private banking clients to our wealth management capabilities and to combine forces to offer superior digital services to our private, wealth and commercial clients.

Shang Xiao, CreditEase Wealth Management

Because of the pandemic and SinoUS trade tensions, customers prefer investments in defensive assets and believe China is a better choice relative to the US. Customers are more aware of the importance of long-term asset allocation of primary market and alternative investments by value investing. Meanwhile, we found that customers care more about health insurance plans and enterprise sustainability. Are they sufficiently prepared? Can their enterprise be passed on smoothly to the next generation? These uncertainties for the future can be solved through our Family Office inheritance scheme.

On the other hand, most wealth management institutions are in the process of transforming and digitalising. In the past few years, CreditEase accumulated its own experience as a financial technology enterprise, which we can share with traditional institutions to empower them to execute a smooth transition.

Arnaud Tellier, BNP Paribas Wealth Management

Onshoring is definitely a longterm wealth trend and gaining momentum in Asia. Local players have become more sophisticated. BNP Paribas has a long-term presence in most major Asian countries and we will make the most of this presence strategically in key markets across Asia over time. We already have a strong onshore presence in Taiwan and are looking to implement best practices from our successes there, as we implement a model, unique to each onshore market.

Joseph Poon, DBS Private Bank

Asia remains the outstanding region for wealth creation and management. ASEAN in particular is starting to shine, due to factors such as the reshoring of supply chains to certain markets in the region, and rising affluence driving domestic consumption. Since last September, we have been collaborating with our onshore business in Thailand to provide Thai HNWIs access to our private banking offering in Singapore. Beyond access to global investment opportunities, this allows them a means to diversify their existing investment portfolio. It’s still early days, but response has been positive and we are on track to meet our growth target of doubling our wealth AUM in Thailand from SG$4 billion to SG$8 billion by 2023. The other exciting market for us is the Philippines. We kicked off some discussions in 2019 and are still in the midst of structuring the best way to tap on the growing onshore HNWIs’ increasing investment appetite, and giving them access to our established wealth management platform in Singapore. More clients are looking to Singapore as a lighthouse from which to assess and invest in regional opportunities. DBS, as Singapore’s leading bank with a strong Asian footprint, network and expertise, stands well placed to advise, support and partner them on this journey.

Omar Shokur, Indosuez Wealth Management

In terms of wealth management in Asia, we continue to firmly believe in the offshore markets model, predominantly served by the offshore hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore. The laws and regulations in place, the presence of solid regulators, and the depth and breadth of the available talent pool are all important ingredients for clients to choose these markets. Whilst clients may opt to do their day-to-day banking onshore, we believe that for their long-term wealth planning and structuring, they will continue to flock to these well established

offshore centres.

Tan Siew Meng, HSBC Private Banking Asia

We are proactively extending our footprint in Asia, particularly in mainland China and ASEAN. I believe strategically growing our onshore presence can certainly open up material opportunities to serve the fast-growing and increasingly sophisticated private wealth and business needs of new and existing clients. Having this connectivity is central to our growth in Asia which is key to delivering our ambition to become the No. 1 wealth manager in the region.

Wang Ya, Private Banking Centre of Bank of China

Mainland China remains the most important growth opportunity for the wealth management industry, with the ongoing development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) cited as a key driver. The announcement of the launch of a Wealth Management Connect Scheme in the GBA is a positive step, although the needs of domestic investors, especially those in mainland China, are still maturing.

On 18 December 2020, Bank of China Private Banking released the Report on Family Wealth Management of Chinese Entrepreneurs. The research found that the wealth management needs of (ultra) high-net-worth individuals represented by Chinese entrepreneurs are becoming more comprehensive and diversified. To be specific, their wealth management needs have been gradually expanding from the personal wealth preservation and appreciation to family wealth protection, management, governance and inheritance, considering all family members as a whole. Customer demand is constantly evolving, and the industry pattern on the supply side is still being explored. It can be said that this is an immense opportunity for the entire wealth management and private banking industry.