Jean Chia believes that Bank of Singapore is on track to offer wealthy clients a chief investment office (CIO) experience unlike any other, blending top-tier investment expertise from both asset and wealth management – a distinction she finds unique to the bank and within the region.
The Singapore private bank, which manages about US$116 billion, has a “CIO 2.0 strategy aimed at becoming a world-class investment house,” according to the global CIO speaking to Asian Private Banker.
“We are already seeing a few facets of the strategy playing out,” she hinted, “and there’ll be more coming up as well.” Chia envisions a new era of wealth management operating in a multipolar global environment, and as wealth advisors, they must think about building legacies for multiple generations.
“The key elements to be a leading investment firm are thought leadership, asset allocation, securities selection, portfolio construction, and the solutions that allow you to basically implement a resilient, diversified portfolio,” she said, adding, “ESG considerations will also be part of the process.”
“Our ambition is to reach the next level of your [APB DPM League Table] category. We aim for a 10-15% DPM penetration rate.”
What’s new?
Last year, Bank of Singapore restructured its CIO unit into a standalone group led by Chia, with a mandate to develop an advanced asset allocation model to enhance client investment experiences and boost discretionary portfolio management (DPM).
This year, the bank launched a CIO Global Advisory Council, featuring investment veterans like Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute, Belinda Boa of BlackRock, and Ken Caplan of Blackstone, to provide advice and insights.
Chia highlighted that the investment views of these individuals do not formulate Bank of Singapore’s house views, but they foster discussions that provide valuable insights. These interactions, debates on key topics, and discussions on risks help guide their future direction.
“We already kicked off our first event, a webinar on geopolitics for our clients, where we took a couple of our council members for a discussion. We even had a series of workshops with the council members in which we surveyed them for what we have produced, the 2024 Supertrends: World in Transition report, examining key structural shifts that will impact businesses and investors for the next five years.”
In addition, the wealth manager hired Owi S. Ruivivar as chief portfolio strategist to enhance its focus on cross-asset research and asset allocation. Ruivivar, formerly responsible for over US$60 billion in emerging market assets at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, joined from GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
“Our ambition is to reach the next level of your [APB DPM League Table] category. We aim for a 10-15% DPM penetration rate,” Chia said. Bank of Singapore is currently at a 5-10% penetration rate, according to APB estimates.
“These are the ingredients towards that goal because, ultimately, DPM is very heterogeneous. While it’s offered in many other private banks, everyone has a differentiated value proposition. And this is our value proposition.”
“That entire supply chain for the investment process is very unique to us. Full-fledged research teams may not be very common across our competition today in Asia, especially in Singapore.”
Not very common
With these developments, Chia believes it advances her team’s cross-asset expertise, setting them apart in the Asian private banking landscape. Her diverse team has backgrounds in asset management, investment banking, wealth management, research, portfolio management, and property management from sovereign wealth funds.
“Being fully responsible for the investment process from cradle to grave, from fundamental research through implementation and review, and staying close to our clients – that entire supply chain for the investment process is very unique to us,” the CIO explained.
“We have quite a lot of in-house ingredients, but we want to bring in the things that will take us to the next level. For example, full-fledged research teams may not be very common across our competition today in Asia, especially in Singapore.
“On top of that, we can in fact craft our own narrative because [we are not] a Zurich, London, or US-based bank that takes from global headquarters and adapts it to Asia. The unique opportunity is we’re writing our own story,” she added.
World views
The end of a low-interest-rate era, coupled with divergence in economic, environmental, and technological development, is creating a multipolar world. Chia feels it is no longer a uniform global economy with fluid trade and low entry barriers.
“The world is increasingly biased in perspectives,” she said, “and bias represents our biggest risk.” The CIO pointed out the rise of political extremes in Europe and the influence of recency bias, such as the tech sector correction and subsequent recovery in 2023, leading to crowded trades like the Magnificent Seven.
She said confirmation bias is also significant because it leads to interpreting data to fit pre-existing theories. Quality bias overprices high-quality assets, ideological bias affects political decisions, and short-termism conflicts with long-term, sustainable returns.
“To overcome these biases and tendencies, global thought leadership must emphasise broader trends and outlooks that transcend short-term concerns and biases,” she concluded.
