Q1: Private banks in Asia have faced a number of challenges in 2024, from uncertainty around interest rate cuts in the US to volatile markets and geopolitical tensions. Considering this background, how did you safeguard AUM and revenue streams in 2024, while also attracting net new assets? What will your strategy be in 2025?

2024 marked the beginning of the consolidation of the private banking industry in Asia, very similar to the trend in the institutional business since the early 2000s. Investors’ focus on personal and wealth security has led them to a small number of global banks which are trusted and strong enough to provide that security. For this privileged group of banks, 2024 is a record year in terms of wallet share and profitability.

Q2: How are you advising clients in terms of investment opportunities in 2025? Which markets and asset classes will provide the best opportunities? And how can clients balance leveraging these opportunities while managing risks to their portfolios?

The new US administration’s early agenda has been well publicised, which will likely make the US an even more potent destination of global investment but also pose significant implications for all other major global markets.

We recommend investors align their portfolio with the priorities of the new US administration, i.e., any sector of significance to national security, healthcare, defence, energy and financial services. In this part of the world, we prefer India and Japan and at the same time recommend investors reduce their underweight on China as Beijing will continue to add economic stimuli.

Q3: China’s announcement in 2024 of a series of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures has helped re-energise the world’s second-largest economy, bringing optimism and momentum to the market. What opportunities has this created for your bank? How would you advise clients when it comes to investing in China?

2H2024 heralded a very significant recovery of investor activity in Asia. Institutional investors rushed into China names to reduce their underweight exposure and wealth investors felt reassured to continue to invest in the US tech names. Different directions, but both were a result of the Chinese stimuli.

As major US banks announced their Q3 results, most of the CEOs referenced Asia as a significant source of earnings growth. For Morgan Stanley, our China strategy with respect to both the institutional and wealth businesses remains constructive. We are resourced to align with clients to serve their domestic and global needs.

Q4: In 2024, the private banking industry witnessed organisational restructurings, leadership reshuffles, as well as heavyweight departures. Looking forward, what are the priorities for your private bank in terms of attracting and retaining talent across the front, middle, and back office? What measures do you have in place for managing personnel transitions?

Morgan Stanley has a very stable and tenured global and regional leadership. This has built a very strong culture and loyalty throughout the organisation. So, thankfully, the turmoil in the private banking industry in Asia did not touch us. In fact, we were able to step up the recruitment of management, sales and product talent this year. We are committed to attracting and retaining talent by providing a fair, rewarding and empowering environment for their career development here.

Q5: The wealth management industry is increasingly subject to oversight and regulation, with this issue once again being brought into the spotlight with high-profile compliance breaches in the last couple of years. How are you addressing regulatory challenges while minimising the impact on clients?

I believe increased regulatory oversight and regulation is a positive catalyst to empower the industry to seek ways to improve culture and risk awareness throughout the respective organisations. My view is that we need to continue to find ways to avoid onboarding unfit clients. If that means causing some inconvenience to clients (and adding work for relationship managers), that’s a necessary cost of doing business.

Q6: Much hype has been made about the transformative potential of artificial intelligence. What opportunities does AI present to your financial institution, and how does it fit into a broader strategy of technological upgrade and digitisation?

Morgan Stanley’s US Wealth Management business is a strategic partner of Open AI on wealth management-related AI applications. I have had the opportunity to take a look at how these tools were able to help our US colleagues service clients and produce tailor-made content in beta tests. It was remarkable. It would take some time for the full benefit of those tools to come to Asia – finding enough data to train the models is a challenge in Asia – but when it comes, it will be transformative.