Asia's domestic wealth managers have to reassess their business models if they want to compete for the significant growth forecast for the market over the next three years.
The estimated $5 trillion wealth management market in Asia-Pacific is expected to increase at an average annual rate of over 13% between 2004 and 2007, but domestic players are not in pole position to take advantage of this, according to a study by independent market analyst Datamonitor.
It ranks 24 of the region's wealth management competitors across business diversification, expansion strategies, product and service range, specialist capabilities, distribution channel development, and marketing strategies, customer acquisition and retention. It reveals striking differences between domestic and foreign wealth managers.
Of the six top scorers, five are global banks. Citigroup Private Bank, HSBC Private Bank, Credit Suisse Private Banking, SG Private Banking and BNP Paribas all ranked as "championship contenders" based on the nine variables. Top scorer Citigroup was slightly higher than runner-up HSBC on distribution and diversification. "Citigroup naturally scores highly in terms of geographic diversity, but it is the clear and structured plans for organic expansion in both developed and emerging markets that puts it at the top of the diversity benchmark," explains Simon Pearse, the study's author.
