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| "Our initial view is to stay away from the consumer side because we think it is a business that tends to make you a little bit of money in good times and lose you a lot in bad times" |
After 25 years working at Citigroup, many of them spent fending off criticisms of the firm’s universal banking model, Bob Morse might be forgiven for taking a break from the industry. Instead, the veteran banker is launching a new financial services group that aims to provide Asia‘s top companies and families with a full suite of banking products. "We are looking at a string of pearls approach," Morse says. "The aim is to acquire control positions in quality assets in the markets we want to do business in, slowly building a regional presence. The banking stream will start with a regional wholesale bank foundation to which we can then add more advanced activities."
Morse and his two founding partners, Wing-Fai Ng and Guocang Huan, say they have $1 billion of start-up capital with which to launch the venture, named Primus Financial Holdings.