Ping An Bank Private Banking
Ping An Bank is the dark horse of private banking: it has quietly raced ahead despite fierce competition in China’s growing wealth management market, and at a time when growth at many of its rivals has moderated.
Having absorbed the wealth management team at Ping An Trust Co in the second half of 2018, Ping An Private Banking’s assets under management (AuM) jumped more than 33% in the six months to the end of June 2019 – whereas many competitors saw lower increases of between 10% to 17% during the same period, according to Asiamoney’s calculations.
At the same time, the number of clients rose almost 28%. While the asset threshold at Ping An Private Banking is relatively low at just Rmb6 million ($860,000), its private-banking clients have one of the highest average account balances, at nearly Rmb16 million.
By the end of 2019, Ping An Private Banking provided will-planning, family-trust, insurance-trust and other inter-generational wealth-transfer services for some 1,000 high net-worth clients. The size of the family-trust business at Ping An exceeded Rmb10 billion. Its vice-president of retail is Cai Xinfa.
The recent transformation of its wealth transfer business to a comprehensive family office business puts Ping An even further ahead of its peers. That team now has close to 20 dedicated members, includes legal and tax experts, and is supported by Ping An Private Banking’s more than 60 investment advisers.
Its dedication and professionalism are what made Ping An stand out.
The household brand of Ping An Insurance in China also meant Ping An Private Banking can easily transition some insurance clients to private-banking clients, and from private-banking clients to family-office clients.
Ping An’s insurance trust business exceeded Rmb4 billion by the end of last year, not long after launching; it has grown to be one of the largest in the market.
Another secret to Ping An Private Banking’s success has been its focus on making the most of technology and artificial intelligence. In 2019, the bank moved its insurance trust business fully online, a first for the market, and did the same with some of its family-trust business.