China Merchants Bank Private Banking
China Merchants Bank’s private bank is the one that almost every other private bank looks to. Without exception, every private banker Asiamoney interviewed said that CMB is the leader in the private banking field. For that reason, CMB wins Asiamoney’s Best National Private Bank award.
Led by Wang Jing, the general manager in charge of Private Banking, the bank began catering to high net-worth individuals in 2007, one of the first to do so in China. Since 2007, it has built up a team of 1,300 wealth managers serving 72,000 wealthy clients via its 63 private banking centres and 66 wealth management centres in locations including Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, London and Luxembourg.
So far, its clients have parked Rmb2 trillion ($300 billion) in assets with the bank, the highest assets under management among private banks in China. High net-worth clients like the bank for a number of reasons, chiefly its fast response, personal care, wide range of products and services that span the globe.
The bank launched a family office service for ultra-high net-worth individuals in 2012, one of the first to do so in China. It is available for people with a minimum of Rmb500 million in assets managed by the bank: 5,000 or so individuals fit this category at CMB.
The service provides integrated management of financial assets and liabilities for HNW families by customizing unique wealth planning solutions, including wealth preservation, risk isolation and asset allocation.
In 2013, CMB further developed the inheritance family office service, providing personalized wealth protection and inheritance plans for HNW wealthy families, as well as comprehensive financial solutions such as family trusts, wealth inheritance, tax planning, legal consultation and insurance planning. By the end of October 2018, it had signed up more than 10 customers with total combined assets under management of more than Rmb10 billion.
The bank’s family office operations have more than 100 team members in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Of the 100, 38 staff members are aged 40 or older and have substantial experience serving wealthy clients.
CMB became the first in China to help a client set up a family wealth inheritance trust back in 2013. By the end of November 2018, the bank had helped, or was working with, 620 families in China and abroad to set up trusts, which in total have Rmb17.8 billion in assets under management.
CMB gave one example of a client who has Rmb2 billion in assets, with substantial stakes in a number of listed and privately held companies operating in the real estate, hotel, restaurant, healthcare, biopharmaceuticals and 3D printing industries. The family, the bank says, includes many children; second-generation entrepreneurs, who manage the different industries from the family office.