With UBS reporting a 40% surge in discretionary assets last year and Standard Chartered almost doubling its book, the industry is aggressively rolling out self-directed and AI-enhanced platforms to democratise access to the CIO office, intensifying competition in the expanding discretionary space.

Multiple leading institutions Asian Private Banker spoke to recently enjoyed robust growth in 2025, and in some cases, nearly doubled the assets under management for DPM as clients sought stability amid market volatility last year.

At Julius Baer, the bank has seen a solid return to growth across DPM solutions over the past 12 months, with strong traction in fixed income, diversified equities, hedge funds, and multi-asset solutions.

“Client demand has been resilient, and the pipeline remains healthy going into 2026. This reflects a growing appetite for discretionary solutions amid the current market environment and makes us well positioned for continued momentum,” Bhaskar Laxminarayan, chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East at the Swiss pure play, told APB.

He added that the adoption of structured, long-term investing is gaining good traction, accelerated partly by ongoing generational wealth transfers in Asia and greater acceptance that professionally managed portfolios tend to perform better over the long term.

Mario Knoepfel at UBS Global Wealth Management (UBS GWM) concurs with this view. The head of broad impact & sustainable investing solutions for Asia Pacific said the key growth driver for DPM  was clients’ increasing desire to professionalise portfolio management and have experts navigate uncertain markets for them. Reinvestments of excessive cash holdings going back into markets were a major source of growth for the bank.

In 2025, AUM within UBS GWM’s discretionary solutions surged by more than 40%. “We do expect this growth in DPM to continue in 2026. Clients are looking for ways to navigate markets, rates and geopolitics by tapping into our expertise,” Knoepfel told APB.

“The focus on serving the ultra high net worth segment has significantly contributed to this growth”

Bhaskar Laxminarayan, Julius Baer

Large drawdowns such as those seen in April last year served as a reminder for investors of market volatility and the immense value of having a disciplined, professional team managing portfolios through such episodes, according to Daniel Furer, head of discretionary portfolio management & asset allocation at Standard Chartered.

The bank’s DPM business has seen record growth over the past year, with AUM almost doubling, he said. “A key catalyst was the expansion of our bespoke mandate offering, which appealed to sophisticated asset allocators and family offices seeking institutional portfolio construction and disciplined implementation,” Furer told APB.

Key solutions

Fueled by clients’ demand for diversified strategies with well-defined risk parameters, multi-asset solutions emerged as big winners last year, with all three banks seeing robust capital inflows. “The focus on serving the ultra high net worth segment has significantly contributed to this growth,” Laxminarayan said.

Julius Baer has been strengthening its solutions for the UHNW segment, which allows UHNW clients or family offices to delegate their investment needs to professionals, with a special emphasis on its outsourced CIO offering, according to Laxminarayan.

Also noteworthy is UBS “My Way”, a portfolio management service where clients build portfolios from more than 70 building blocks. “Our range of attractive single stock strategies has proven to be of particular interest to our clients,” said Knoepfel.

In addition, UBS bolstered its investment offerings by launching a thematic power and resources module within its actively managed single-stock portfolios. Knoepfel said this expansion targets opportunities relating to power infrastructure and industrial technology, including sectors vital to scaling artificial intelligence and energy transition.

“We have seen strong growth across our capabilities – most notably from clients deploying into our flagship multi-asset portfolios”

Mario Knoepfel, UBS

In the fixed income space, Standard Chartered’s Furer said demand focuses on lower-risk segments, like cash-plus strategies, delivering returns above deposits, and shorter-duration investment-grade mandates. “Clients valued steady carry and limited interest-rate exposure, especially with an inverted and volatile yield curve,” he told APB.

The prospect of reduced interest rates, which only became more evident in the last 12 months, also helped banks, including Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, to engage with clients on fixed income mandates with increased success compared to just a year ago. 

Meanwhile, Lombard Odier told APB previously that clients searching for diversified yield amid a lower rate environment will help boost demand for dollar fixed income, which still provides sufficient yield.

US dollar weakness in 2025 also prompted banks to develop new offerings to minimise currency risk. On that front, Standard Chartered launched SGD, GBP, and AUD-specific mandates in the bond space, as well as a blend of Singapore equity and REITs, Furer said.

Democratising CIO office

Standard Chartered also introduced a feature to provide clients with a steady payout from their mandates, minimising fluctuations to support their liabilities. “We also launched a low-risk, short-duration mandate at small bite sizes for clients with lower risk tolerance,” Furer explained.

CIO funds, on the other hand, have increasingly become a common fixture in Asia’s private banks with the promise of democratising DPM offerings. Standard Chartered’s Signature CIO Fund is available to its wealth and retail banking clients across 12 markets. The bank said last year in October that it had raised over US$3 billion in the fund three years after its launch. 

Furer attributed the traction to the fund’s institutional-grade oversight, transparency, and ease of access. “These strategies align collectively with client priorities of resilience, liquidity, and clarity of outcomes,” he said.

Some other players have also added private market flavours to their CIO funds. For one, BNP Paribas Wealth Management rolled out its new CIO Strategy Fund in Asia last August. This solution, whose minimum ticket size is US$200,000, complements the bank’s managed solution suites and has up to about 20% in private assets and alternatives, giving investors the opportunity for daily liquidity. 

The French wealth manager back then shared with APB that it targeted a fund size of US$300 million by the end of 2025, following strong client demand.

Digitalisation and client engagement

Apart from an ever-evolving product shelf, digitalisation also plays a key role in driving the DPM businesses. Julius Baer’s Laxminarayan said technology and operations see continuous incremental improvements at the bank and remain a key focus area within the DPM offering.

For UBS, with UBS My Way going digital, Knoepfel said the bank offers the first DPM solution that clients can navigate themselves, allowing them to get the latest CIO insights, explore 80+ investment building blocks and make changes to their My Way portfolios.

He added that the bank’s main priorities for DPM in 2026 will be focused on client engagement and further digitisation. “We will accelerate our engagement with clients to build strategic portfolios with our DPM solutions at the heart to provide diversification, stability and ongoing professional management, helping them achieve their wealth preservation and accumulation goals,” Knoepfel told APB.

At Standard Chartered, the integration of Bloomberg AIM has significantly improved the bank’s risk management and reporting capabilities. It allows the team to view risk holistically, run scenario analyses, and operationalise client-specific constraints at scale, resulting in faster, more disciplined implementation for portfolio managers and clearer insights for clients, Furer explained.

“We also aim to extend some bespoke and thematic capabilities for family offices, to support more customised and institutionally aligned portfolios”

Daniel Furer, Standard Chartered

“Enhanced digital reporting and analytics will be a central focus, as clients expect greater transparency and real-time insights,” he said.

Meanwhile, the emerging market-focused lender plans to increase penetration in Hong Kong and Dubai by strengthening local DPM specialist coverage and embedding discretionary solutions more firmly into frontline advisory processes.

“We also aim to extend some bespoke and thematic capabilities for family offices, to support more customised and institutionally aligned portfolios. These initiatives will position us to scale a modern, regionally relevant DPM platform,” Furer told APB.