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Swiss banker to expand in China, cuts back globally
By Lydia Chen |
November 30, 2011, Wednesday
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Online Edition
Online Edition
SWISS private bank Julius Baer is expanding its reach into China with the opening of a representative office in Shanghai, compared to a shrinking workforce elsewhere amid the global financial crisis, its Asia head said this morning.
The local office of the leading Swiss private banking group marks its ambition to establish a brand within the Chinese mainland market, after it forecasted in an earlier report that the number of millionaires in the world's second largest economy would account for about half of Asia's rich and hold more than half of the region's wealth by 2015.
Asia's millionaires will more than double in number to 2.8 million, with 1.4 million high net-worth people in China, according to the company's Asia Wealth Report released in September. Chinese millionaires would hold US$8.76 trillion of the US$15.81 trillion that the region's millionaires are expected to have, it said.
The key role of the Shanghai representative office would be to function as a business liaison between the banks, local regulators and companies and to conduct market research into the wealth management industry in China, Thomas Meier, the bank's Asia chief, told a news conference in Shanghai.
The firm currently doesn't have any clients in the mainland as it still has to wait for another two years to win approval from the Chinese regulator to set up a branch to run its banking business.
In Asia, Julius Baer has large operations in Singapore and Hong Kong that caters to both domestic and offshore clients, as well as an onshore presence in Jakarta to serve Indonesia's wealthy.
Its Hong Kong operation was upgraded to a full bank branch late last year, and it also opened a Singapore Trust company during 2011.
Meier said his firm would continue its growth story to make Asia its second home market and they intended to expand the workforce in the region.
"Private banking is not a scalable business ... You have to add bankers in order to grow a franchise, therefore, this is a process that will continue to grow particularly in Asia," he said. "In a growing environment, we are not faced with these problems too much."
The Zurich-based bank earlier announced intensions to cut 150 jobs globally as a cost-saving move amid the spreading sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone area.
Meanwhile, Meier said the Shanghai office was likely to apply for more quotas from its current US$100 million from China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme, which allows foreign investors to invest in mainland stock markets, since demand proved strong among its clients.
The local office of the leading Swiss private banking group marks its ambition to establish a brand within the Chinese mainland market, after it forecasted in an earlier report that the number of millionaires in the world's second largest economy would account for about half of Asia's rich and hold more than half of the region's wealth by 2015.
Asia's millionaires will more than double in number to 2.8 million, with 1.4 million high net-worth people in China, according to the company's Asia Wealth Report released in September. Chinese millionaires would hold US$8.76 trillion of the US$15.81 trillion that the region's millionaires are expected to have, it said.
The key role of the Shanghai representative office would be to function as a business liaison between the banks, local regulators and companies and to conduct market research into the wealth management industry in China, Thomas Meier, the bank's Asia chief, told a news conference in Shanghai.
The firm currently doesn't have any clients in the mainland as it still has to wait for another two years to win approval from the Chinese regulator to set up a branch to run its banking business.
In Asia, Julius Baer has large operations in Singapore and Hong Kong that caters to both domestic and offshore clients, as well as an onshore presence in Jakarta to serve Indonesia's wealthy.
Its Hong Kong operation was upgraded to a full bank branch late last year, and it also opened a Singapore Trust company during 2011.
Meier said his firm would continue its growth story to make Asia its second home market and they intended to expand the workforce in the region.
"Private banking is not a scalable business ... You have to add bankers in order to grow a franchise, therefore, this is a process that will continue to grow particularly in Asia," he said. "In a growing environment, we are not faced with these problems too much."
The Zurich-based bank earlier announced intensions to cut 150 jobs globally as a cost-saving move amid the spreading sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone area.
Meanwhile, Meier said the Shanghai office was likely to apply for more quotas from its current US$100 million from China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme, which allows foreign investors to invest in mainland stock markets, since demand proved strong among its clients.
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