At China Construction Bank Private Banking, assets under management rose 14% in 2021, while the number of private-banking clients increased 11% to about 180,000.
At the core of CCB’s flourishing private-banking franchise is its industry-leading family-office business. The family office was officially launched in 2018, followed by an internal upgrade last year. The services provided by CCB family office have been streamlined to cover four key areas: wealth management and succession; family governance; corporate-related services, as most of the families own businesses; and philanthropy services.
Many of CCB’s Chinese private-banking peers have also tapped into family businesses in recent years. But unlike some other banks, which treat clients that have set up a family trust as family clients, CCB’s family office endeavours to serve the real family clients. These are families that each have assets under management of at least Rmb100 million (about $16 million) at CCB and that have total family assets of at least Rmb1 billion or even as much as Rmb5 billion: these set an example for what family offices are truly about in this relatively new industry in China.
The 54 signed-up family clients at CCB have an average of Rmb270 million in AuM.