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Top Eight for Week 14-20 July 2017

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Greetings,

Those with an eye on our news flow will have noted (with great interest I hope) that Chinese private banks are slowly but surely increasing their regional footprints. In recent months, both CMB and CCB opened dedicated private banking branches in Singapore, Minsheng cut the ribbon on a private bank and wealth management centre in IFC 2, and BoCom earlier this week announced that it will pump HK$7.9 billion into a single new HK subsidiary that will house private banking activities.

While these forays are unlikely to worry incumbent market leaders (at least in the immediate future), those private banks that dominate Northeast Asia will be concerned by the vigour with which the Singaporean triumvirate of DBS, BoS and UOB – which collectively manage upwards of US$195 billion in AUM – is angling in on the sub-region.

BoS has added another floor to its Hong Kong offices and has issued a fairly aggressive hiring mandate. DBS, though busy dealing with a complicated ANZ integration, is also aiming to expand its private banking business in Northeast Asia, while UOB Private Bank, by far the smallest of the three, has set the wheels in motion with the recent hire of BoCom’s former general manager for private banking in HK as its new HK head.

Nothing beats a healthy dose of competition.

Your Top Eight follows.

Cheers,
Sebastian Enberg
Editor

ALTERNATIVES | EXCLUSIVE   20 July 2017
Julius Baer raises US$170 million from clients in Asia for real estate PE fund
In what is another example of Asian HNWIs’ fervour for local assets and real estate, Julius Baer recently raised about US$170 million from clients in the region for a private equity fund invested in real estate across the Asia Pacific, according to sources.

 

ALTERNATIVES | PORTFOLIO | EXCLUSIVE   18 July 2017
Noah to partner with Citi to launch macro FX MoM solution
Noah Wealth Management plans to bolster its alternatives coverage with the addition of a macro FX manager-of-manager (MoM) solution.

 

DPM | EXCLUSIVE​   17 July 2017
Goldman Sachs PWM is “optimising” clients’ multi-bank DPM portfolios with aggregation solution
Using a multi-factor approach, Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management is helping clients in Asia to iron out inefficiencies between their multi-bank discretionary portfolio management (DPM) strategies, says Jacky Tang, the bank’s head of portfolio management group and co-head of investment strategy group for Asia.

 

INDUSTRY | EXCLUSIVE   19 July 2017
Bank of Singapore adds floor as HK team continues to swell
Bank of Singapore is adding another floor to its Hong Kong offices to accommodate its growing team in the city, Asian Private Banker can reveal.

 

FINTECH | EXCLUSIVE   19 July 2017
Rivalry between SG and HK breeds uncertainty for PB-focused fintechs
Hong Kong and Singapore are caught up in a two-horse race to develop the most comprehensive fintech ecosystem and house the lion’s share of the US$22.2 billion invested in financial tech in Asia.

 

REGULATIONS | WEALTH PLANNING | EXCLUSIVE   20 July 2017
Asian investors shouldn’t hurry to restructure US assets if estate tax is repealed, experts say
A repeal of the US estate tax would be a welcome development for investors in Asia – particularly those with real estate holdings – though experts say that wealthy clients in the region should take a cautious approach to restructuring their American assets if the mooted changes see the light of day.

 

INDUSTRY | EXCLUSIVE   17 July 2017
First batch of 28 RMs graduate from Bank of Singapore’s advanced diploma programme
A group of 28 relationship managers (RMs) have graduated from Bank of Singapore’s advanced diploma private banking programme, which was launched in partnership with Singapore’s Wealth Management Institute (WMI) and the Nanyang Technological University last May, Asian Private Banker understands.

 

TECHNOLOGY | EXCLUSIVE   14 July 2017
A tech take on Indosuez WM’s CIC PB deal
Yesterday, Indosuez Wealth Management confirmed that it has reached an agreement to buy Crédit Industriel et Commercial’s (CIC) private banking activities in Asia. As evidenced by recent acquisitions in the region, private banking mergers nowadays involve not only a marriage of two firms, but also a fusion of their respective technology systems.

 

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