North Asia’s private wealth business is experiencing unprecedented growth, breaking records across the board in 2025, according to leading private bankers at the Asian Private Banker Summit 2025 in Hong Kong today.

The panel discussion, Behind the Rebound: Momentum in North Asia’s Private Wealth Business, highlighted the convergence of massive wealth creation, strategic migration, and rapid technological adoption as the key drivers of momentum in the region.

“We have seen more than double-digit growth over the last few years, and especially in Hong Kong, [the city] has become the driving force for our group’s growth,” said David Shick, market head, Greater China Hong Kong, and branch manager, Hong Kong, at Julius Baer.

Shick added that he found it surprising that Hong Kong is beating Zurich, traditionally the strongest market for the Zurich-headquartered pure play firm, by a wide margin in terms of fund flows and discretionary flows. Alternative investments stand out, too, as what Shick described as a “game changer” in a year defined by “record fund launches.”

Echoing Shick, Arnaud Tellier, chief executive officer, Asia, at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, commented on Hong Kong’s comeback, particularly for its role as the largest initial public offering (IPO) market and one of the best-performing equity markets.

“For us, of course, it has been a record year as well. We normally grow double digits year after year. This year is more than 20% of our assets, much more than the 20% growth for our top line, with the bottom line performing even better. What’s more remarkable, actually, is that this growth comes from all markets. Yes, it’s driven by North Asia, indeed, but growth in assets coming about half-half from new clients and existing clients,” Tellier said.

Breaking down the forces fuelling the regional boom, Amy Lo, chairman of UBS Global Wealth Management Asia, head and chief executive Hong Kong at UBS, cited sustained wealth creation, wealth flows influenced by current geopolitical pressures, and the massive shift underway in the intergenerational wealth transfer.

Competition and collaboration in Asia’s wealth race

But as the momentum grows, intense competition remains a central theme, especially since many Asian clients are multi-banked. This leaves a key question: what does it take to stand out and capture the largest client wallet share?

However, Lo emphasised the collaborative nature of the industry: “While we work as a competitor, we are so collaborative in developing the industry,” she said.

Julius Baer’s Shick echoed Lo, believing there will always be room to compete. He looks at differentiation from a three-dimensional perspective, where the business model has to cater to clients, shareholders, and employees.

Touching on the topic, BNP Paribas Wealth Management’s Tellier said that Asia will remain the highest growth region globally, and competition naturally comes with growth. 

Tellier highlighted several key differentiators that he believes set the firm apart amidst intense competition: the ability to offer a full one-bank approach that effectively addresses the combined professional and family needs of entrepreneurs, alongside the firm’s long-term driven strategy and its identity as a European bank. This serves as a significant advantage, he believes, particularly in markets like China, where clients are seeking diversification and welcome their alternative investments and distinct value proposition.

Besides competition among traditional banks, Lo said the most severe competition will be coming from digital disruptors. 

“Because we are all traditional banks sitting here, when I came to realise it takes us 60 years to produce the profit, whereas they are quite close to us in just less than 10 years. It’s scary,” said Lo. 

She added that traditional banks can learn the superior client channel and how digital competitors connect, as well as the impressive multi-channel approach and leveraging the use of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). 

Traditional financial institutions are grappling with the urgent question of how to integrate technology to drive success, especially since these new players, which often offer ultra-low or zero brokerage commissions, are successfully attracting sophisticated clients, including family offices and institutional money. The challenge lies in determining which successful practices and technologies to adopt.

Talent strategy: Hire, train, augment

Panellists are actively focused on talent strategy as a core pillar for growth in Asia Pacific. Firms are selectively hiring experienced relationship managers to capture market share, while also heavily emphasising internal talent development through long-running graduate and associate programmes to build a sustainable pipeline. 

“Certainly, we are hiring,” said Lo, whose firm targets to selectively hire more quality relationship managers across international and domestic markets, including the likes of Australia, Japan, and Taiwan. 

Shick said the bank is overhauling its talent strategy, shifting its focus to building a sustainable internal pipeline with a focused associate relationship manager programme. 

This change is possible because the next-generation client base is different, and AI rapidly accelerates the learning curve for new relationship managers. With high AI adoption (50% of employees use it daily), the firm is investing in new talent and constant upskilling to compete with agile, tech-focused players, rendering the old “white hair” experience requirement less critical. 

For Tellier, private banking remains a high-touch people’s business where clients expect to be served by “empowered augmented humans,” especially as demographics shift. The firm hires slowly (under 10% staff increase), treating the process as a significant investment in cultural fit to prevent failure. 

Overall talent strategy balances internal grooming and promotion with selective “new blood” to boost agility and different perspectives, Tellier said.

Nuveen eyes further penetration into the region’s private wealth 

The North Asia private wealth momentum, particularly the appetite for alternatives, is driving dedicated asset managers like Nuveen to deepen their penetration into the region’s private wealth channels. 

Chad Phillips, global head of Nuveen Real Estate, Nuveen, described 2025 as a bounce-back year for real estate investing. 

Phillips, who is responsible for over US$140 billion of commercial real estate equity and debt investments, extending across 22 countries globally, said the firm has raised about US$2.5 billion for its real estate book this year, counting Temasek and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as anchor investors. 

“Now that we have those anchors, we’re going deeper into the wealth and the private wealth channels, and so that’ll be our next big push in the region,” said Phillips, adding that the macro environment in 2026 for real estate will be positive as the industry moves into the next cycle. 

With US$1.3 trillion in public and private assets, Nuveen invests in the growth of businesses, real estate, infrastructure, and natural capital, with its expertise spanning across income and alternatives.

“We’re going very offensive on real estate right now. We’ll deploy about US$2 billion this year globally, and we’ll probably double that in 2026 [as] rates are coming down,” Phillips added. He highlighted how private banks, on the real estate side, have increasingly been looking for evergreen and open-ended structures, as well as the right tax shelters.