Strategy & Practice Management

Credit Suisse Sees Asia Wealth Race Shift From Offshore Hubs

After years of racing to accumulate assets in the key offshore centers of Singapore and Hong Kong, the challenge for wealth managers in Asia is shifting to cities such as Manila, Jakarta and Shanghai.

Private banks that want to tap into Asia’s growing onshore wealth need to think less about regional asset totals and more about accumulating a critical mass of wealth in the individual Asian countries, according to Francesco de Ferrari, head of Asia-Pacific private banking at Credit Suisse Group AG.  For the Zurich-based bank, the target is at least $10 billion in each of its 11 key markets across Asia, de Ferrari said in an interview earlier this month.

“What is the minimum critical size for a bank in Asia? What is the size of assets you need to become viable? Most people would have said 10 years ago it was USD10 billion-USD20 billion, now it’s USD30 billion-USD40 billion,” de Ferrari said. “But the market size for Asia is completely the wrong question. For me, we need to have a minimum size by market if you want to operate there.”

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