The soaring number of wealthy Chinese has led to prestigious private bank Coutts doubling the number of people working in its Asia Pacific Office.
Better known as the Queen’s bank, the aim is to help China’s new millionaires, and there are thought to be more than a million of them invest and protect their wealth.
The bank currently employs 500 people in its Singapore and Hong Kong offices providing a range of services to exclusive clients including wealth management.
China’s booming economy is creating millionaires at a fast rate and there are already 122 billionaires in the country, ranking in second place on the Forbes’ global richest list.
To underline just how quickly wealth is created in China, last year there were only 96 billionaires.
Michael Blake, general manager for Coutts Asia, said: “About 50% of these assets are not professionally managed, so this is a massive opportunity for us.”
Wealth management
The bank has also recognised that rich Chinese are entering an era of transferring wealth between generations; from its creators to their children.
That’s why Coutts is looking to double its headcount in the region over the medium term to provide wealth management to a growing number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs).
However, the bank will be recruiting those finance professionals with knowledge of the Asia Pacific region and say that it is no longer possible for staff to leave London and head east.
Since London is increasingly popular with Chinese HNWIs who are buying prime residential properties in the capital and they are sending their children to be schooled in the UK, Coutts sees an advantage for their service offering.
A wealth report from worldwide real estate firm Knight Frank highlighted how emerging markets were becoming increasingly import for world’s wealth management landscape.
Lucrative market
The report said that wealth advisers would need to improve how they understand the requirements of HNWIs in the world’s emerging economies to capitalise on potentially lucrative markets.
It is estimated that the Asia Pacific region is home to more than three million HNWIs and the wealth management sector catering to these wealthy people is less than 15 years old.
However, for many wealthy Chinese the concept of wealth management is relatively new and little understood and many of the rich people being targeted are entrepreneurs who have established their own businesses. They are also the first generation in their families to accumulate wealth.
News of Coutts’ Chinese ambitions coincided with a probe being launched by China’s banking regulator into some of the wealth management services being offered by the country’s banks after fears were raised that they weren’t being transparent enough.
