According to Joyce Koh writing in Business Week UBS AG, the world’s second-largest manager of assets for the rich, expects private-banking revenue from China to at least double annually as the ranks of wealthy swell and regulators ease curbs on what products it can sell.
“Our future growth is never talked about in anything less than 100 percent every year,” said Richard Leung, head of wealth management at UBS Securities Co., the company’s venture in China, in a telephone interview from Beijing. “We talk about how many folds of growth a year every year. I would say not too many markets talk about that kind of growth.”
The combined wealth of China’s millionaires overtook that of the U.K. to rank fourth worldwide in 2008, according to an annual survey by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini SA. UBS Securities, 20 percent owned by the Zurich-based bank, plans to further expand the services it offers rich clients in China that include fixed income and mutual funds, Beijing-based Leung said.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s local venture partner in China, Beijing Gao Hua Securities Co., plans to expand its wealth management operations through new retail branches it’s setting up, people familiar with the matter said last week.
UBS Securities, which started private banking in August 2007, has outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Leung said his hiring plans depend on the pace of growth in assets under management.
Three decades of economic growth averaging almost 10 percent has turned China into one of the fastest-growing wealth management markets, prompting local lenders to enter the business. Bank of China Ltd. said in March 2007 it would start private banking, the first local bank to do so. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s most profitable bank, followed about a year later.
China has 825,000 people with a net worth of 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) or more, many of whom haven’t been affected by the financial crisis, the Hurun Report, which compiles an annual rich list, said in April. The country’s millionaires are on average 39 years old, the report showed.
Citigroup Inc., which started catering to individuals in China who have at least $10 million two years ago, has said it wants the nation to account for a fifth of its private banking business.
Chinese regulators are likely to become more supportive of more complex financial products like derivatives, helping drive growth, said Leung. China’s securities regulator said last week it will introduce index futures, margin trading and short sales, bringing its capital markets closer to international standards.
“The Chinese are very quick learners, especially the rich ones,” said Leung. “The local people will look at what’s being offered in the developed markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, or even in the U.S. or Europe. When they come back to China, they’ll ask, ‘How come I did not see this in China?’”
“Our future growth is never talked about in anything less than 100 percent every year,” said Richard Leung, head of wealth management at UBS Securities Co., the company’s venture in China, in a telephone interview from Beijing. “We talk about how many folds of growth a year every year. I would say not too many markets talk about that kind of growth.”
The combined wealth of China’s millionaires overtook that of the U.K. to rank fourth worldwide in 2008, according to an annual survey by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini SA. UBS Securities, 20 percent owned by the Zurich-based bank, plans to further expand the services it offers rich clients in China that include fixed income and mutual funds, Beijing-based Leung said.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s local venture partner in China, Beijing Gao Hua Securities Co., plans to expand its wealth management operations through new retail branches it’s setting up, people familiar with the matter said last week.
UBS Securities, which started private banking in August 2007, has outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Leung said his hiring plans depend on the pace of growth in assets under management.
Three decades of economic growth averaging almost 10 percent has turned China into one of the fastest-growing wealth management markets, prompting local lenders to enter the business. Bank of China Ltd. said in March 2007 it would start private banking, the first local bank to do so. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s most profitable bank, followed about a year later.
China has 825,000 people with a net worth of 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) or more, many of whom haven’t been affected by the financial crisis, the Hurun Report, which compiles an annual rich list, said in April. The country’s millionaires are on average 39 years old, the report showed.
Citigroup Inc., which started catering to individuals in China who have at least $10 million two years ago, has said it wants the nation to account for a fifth of its private banking business.
Chinese regulators are likely to become more supportive of more complex financial products like derivatives, helping drive growth, said Leung. China’s securities regulator said last week it will introduce index futures, margin trading and short sales, bringing its capital markets closer to international standards.
“The Chinese are very quick learners, especially the rich ones,” said Leung. “The local people will look at what’s being offered in the developed markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, or even in the U.S. or Europe. When they come back to China, they’ll ask, ‘How come I did not see this in China?’”
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