The private banking industry is quietly retiring one of its favourite marketing buzzwords. Conceding that the phrase “semi-liquid” anchors clients in a false sense of daily liquidity, private banks are slowly phasing the term out of their vocabulary and instead shifting toward a language of “intellectual honesty,” thereby forcing transparent, mandatory conversations about illiquidity, suitability and long-term investing. “The volume […]

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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, […]

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Imagine a highly reliable group of employees capable of meticulously sifting through thousands of pages of financial statements and data sets, all while spotting news trends such as sustainability claims, executive moves, social media chatter, fund flows, and then suggesting calculated trades on a whim – not just for one company, but for tens of thousands of organisations across different […]

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Once reserved for mega family offices and institutional investors, private market investments are now a core part of wealth client portfolios. Global alternative managers are expanding rapidly across Asia, with growing demand for private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and secondaries. But as more players enter the market, questions arise: is the space becoming too crowded, and are semi-liquid strategies, promising […]

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What are the first names that come to mind when considering financial hubs in Asia Pacific? Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo? But could we be about to add… Kaohsiung to that list? If the Taiwanese government has anything to do with it, we might be. Emboldened by an artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor boom, and promising a series of […]

The post Deep Dive: Why cultural Kaohsiung could be the next frontier for wealth management appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

Specialised alternative strategies are gaining popularity with private wealth clients in Asia, as private equity firms seek to differentiate their offerings amid increasingly fierce competition, leading private bank alts heads told Asian Private Banker. “The growth of specialist alternative investment players is a significant trend in Asia’s private wealth market,” said Jason Ng, co-head of the alternatives and strategic solutions […]

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Private wealth investors in Asia are increasingly turning to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over traditional mutual funds as key building blocks for portfolio construction, industry leaders to Asian Private Banker.  However, it is not over for the mutual fund quite yet. While industry research indicates that mutual fund AUM is declining while that of ETFs is increasing, wider adoption faces challenges. […]

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Financial intermediary (FIM) giant VP Bank has waved goodbye to its Hong Kong business, becoming the latest private bank to exit dedicated EAM services in the city. In the context of other similar exits, the decision also raises the question of why some private banks in Asia struggle with dedicated intermediary teams. While VP Bank did not detail the reason […]

The post Mountain to climb: Private banks in Asia struggle with EAM desks appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

Law firms in Hong Kong and Singapore have identified private wealth as a growth area amid huge inflows of mainland Chinese capital, and with more clients seeking wealth protection and succession planning services in an increasingly volatile world. The great wealth transfer in Asia has prompted some law firms to form a dedicated team with full services to clients, add […]

The post Private wealth business booms for Asia law firms amid IPO slump appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

The US$80 trillion private wealth market in Asia has now become a new gold rush for global alternative asset managers as private wealth clients seek better diversification and new sources of income from alternative asset classes. Over the past 10 years, the private market’s assets under management (AUM) in Asia has grown by over 660%. By the end of September […]

The post Deep Dive: How global PE giants unlock private wealth opportunities in Asia appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

Private banks and asset managers have been adding on-the-ground teams onshore in China in recent years with Asia’s largest economy simply too big to ignore for many. However, China is proving a tough nut to crack for global firms as progress remains limited and restricted to piecemeal and select schemes. Moreover, areas in which China has opened its wealth market […]

The post Deep Dive: Is onshore China more trouble than it’s worth? appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

2023 was the year in which the Hong Kong government ramped up the dial on promoting family offices in the city. But why now? Outside the industry, the prosaic concept of families setting up private offices to manage their own wealth was suddenly thrust into the limelight – not only as a key selling point for Hong Kong as an […]

The post APB Deep Dive: Inside Hong Kong’s grand plan for family offices appeared first on Asian Private Banker.

Japan remains an enigma in the private banking space. The world’s third-largest economy, yet few international banks or wealth managers have significant footholds there. With China’s reopening proving a disappointment, many eyes turned to Japan as an alternative way to capture the Asian growth story. This – along with improving corporate governance and attractive valuations – has injected momentum into […]

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