Yet again, DBS stands head and shoulders above the field in Asian wealth management.
Under the leadership of group head of DBS Private Bank, Joseph Poon, the bank enjoyed a stellar 2023, navigating market volatility to post a 30% year-on-year rise in wealth management income, with net new money, the lifeblood of private banking, 57% higher.
AfE 2024
Much of the growth was fuelled by Hong Kong and mainland Chinese clients putting more money to work in Singapore. In total, DBS attracted S$24 billion ($17.8 billion) in net new money from clients in north Asia, southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Total wealth-related assets under management jumped 23% year on year in 2023 to S$365 billion, against a backdrop of rising inflation and de-risking among clients.
“We have an amazing private banking franchise,” says Poon. “Asia will be the region offering the fastest rate of financial asset growth by 2025, and we are at the heart of that story. It’s not about size per se – it’s about the global footprint we have, about the value we bring to clients. We bank clients from more than 115 nationalities. The world is coming to us.”
At the heart of DBS’s success is its integrated One Bank proposition. This strategy, which caters to entrepreneurs in particular, helps to serve both the corporate and personal side of the individual balance sheet, and unites the firm’s investment, institutional, private and corporate banking teams.
One Bank offers support to family-office clients as they navigate complex financial challenges that often extend beyond traditional wealth management. An example of this is its strategic advisory solutions team, which sits within the private bank and works with the capital markets and institutional banking teams to help ultra-high net-worth (UHNW) clients to identify bespoke investment solutions and opportunities.
DBS once again used its longstanding credentials as a digital pioneer to find new ways to serve its private wealth clients, from mass affluents to UHNWs. The bank uses behavioural impulses such as nudges to send targeted messages to clients and to its own relationship managers. The bank’s deployment of artificial intelligence and data analysts helped to generate a 30% year-on-year jump in wealth-planning solutions adoption in 2023.
Total wealth-related assets under management jumped 23% year on year in 2023 to S$365 billion, against a backdrop of rising inflation and de-risking among clients
Its chief investment office continues to be a cutting-edge resource, full of client-facing research, advice and ideas, drawing on output from DBS’s fixed income and equities analysts. Two private wealth solutions that stand out during the awards period are its revamped CIO Liquid+ Fund, which optimizes yield, safety and liquidity, and the DBS Idea Fund, which capitalizes on technology and digitalization trends.
CIO-led strategies such as its 60/40 stocks-to-bonds call for investors to deploy cash into multi-asset balanced portfolios, and for clients to add exposure to corporate innovators, disruptors, enablers and adapters, were bold calls made against a backdrop of concerns about the state of the tech sectors. But both translated into big gains for clients during the awards period.
Another feather in the cap for the CIO was its decision to recommend investing in ‘quiet luxury’ brands that espouse new-age minimalism and create apparel and goods that buck temporary trends. This was a contrarian call, with some analysts fearing a crunch in the luxury space, but again it was right on the money.