JULIUS Baer Chief Executive Boris Collardi enters the 18th-floor meeting room in the bank's Hong Kong offices lugging a suitcase that contains a clue to the soaring pay of Asian private bankers.

"I don't like to talk and not show things," said the head of Switzerland's fourth-biggest wealth manager, reaching into the black bag for the bank's Asian wealth survey. The snapshot of spending by the region's growing ranks of millionaires, released last week, tells a tale of rising consumption in the past year - bottles of Lafite Rothschild 2000 up 22 percent to US$3,336; a 500-guest wedding banquet up 19 percent to US$92,146; Hong Kong golf club memberships going for US$360,400.

Asia-Pacific millionaires outnumbered those in Europe for the first time last year, according to a survey by Capgemini and Bank of America. More millionaires means more spending and more demand for private wealth managers from banks such as BSI, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and HSBC. Recruiters say too many banks are hunting too few experienced staff in the region, pushing up salaries and crimping profits.

"Good bankers have at least one offer on the table, if not two," said Collardi. "Today, if you want to be successful in hiring, you need to be forceful."

Global demand for client relationship managers is expected to rise 13 percent over 2011 and 2012, while growth in the Asia-Pacific region will be double that, according to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers. That has pushed top salaries in Singapore to almost twice the level in Switzerland, the world's biggest offshore wealth manager, according to London-based recruitment firm EMA Partners International.

Senior private bankers in Singapore earn between US$160,000 and US$410,000 a year, while the comparative range in Switzerland is US$152,000 to US$210,000, EMA estimates.

"People are simply paying too much and that cannot be justified from an economic point of view," said Thomas Meier, Julius Baer's Asia chief executive. He said if a bank pays 30 percent more than a person's salary at his previous employer, and the new recruit ends up adding just 5 percent more to revenue, the bank will feel the pinch.

The premium required to attract somebody new in Asia is 20 percent to 30 percent of base compensation, said Matthew Streeton, partner at Consulting Partnership, a Singapore-based recruitment firm. Usually, private bankers get a guaranteed bonus in their first year on top of the base salary, and thereafter earn an annual bonus based on performance, he said.

If new hires can move 30 percent of the assets they handled to their new employer in the first 18 months, the banks are lucky, said Noor Quek, Asian associate of UK-based executive search firm Sulger Buel.

Those who cannot move client assets tend to keep moving jobs "on and on and on," said Quek, 61-year-old founder of Singapore-based family office and wealth-planning adviser NQ International.

Right kind of movement

In Singapore and Hong Kong, only 25 percent of relationship managers are able to bring more than 60 percent of the assets they manage to their new employer, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Hanspeter Brunner, chief executive of Switzerland-based BSI in Asia, said experienced advisers who could bring business to a new employer are harder to recruit.

"Why should somebody working for a good bank - being well taken care of, and having a good base of clients - move?" said Brunner, who has recruited almost 70 private bankers between Singapore and Hong Kong in the last 18 months.

As an example of the discrepancy in salaries between Europe and Asia, Brunner cited BSI's Asia head of credit, who earns more than his boss, the group head of credit in Switzerland. "One is very well paid for the Swiss environment and the other is well paid for the Asian environment," he said.

Switzerland had about US$1.7 trillion in offshore private banking assets at the end of last year, according to Boston Consulting, which counted those with over US$1 million in investable assets. Singapore, the fifth-largest offshore destination, had US$512 billion. Including domestic clients, Switzerland was the third-biggest with US$2.6 trillion, while Singapore was sixth with US$966 billion.

Asia's star has been rising as Europe struggles with its sovereign debt crisis and regulators in the US and Europe crack down on tax evasion. The Swiss government agreed in March 2009 to adopt international standards on the exchange of information on tax evaders after being accused by Germany and the US of helping to shelter cheats. That was the biggest change to Swiss banking secrecy laws since their introduction in 1934.

In 2007, before the financial crisis, costs for private bankers in the Asia-Pacific region, including salaries, were about 57 percent of revenue generated, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. This year, cost-to-income ratios are forecast to be 82 percent in Singapore and Hong Kong, and about 70 percent in Switzerland, the firm said.

The principal factor adding to costs, especially in Asia, is compensation, said Roman Scott, founder of Singapore-based alternative investment firm Calamander. "Labor makes up about 60 percent to 65 percent of the costs of a private bank," he said.

Rising costs "will be an important factor in determining compensation packages" in future, said Alex Fung, chairman of Societe Generale's private banking division in Asia-Pacific.

Firms across the region are looking to expand private banking teams.

Zurich-based UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, is expanding its team to 1,200 from 900, said Kathryn Shih, regional head of wealth management. JPMorgan intends to add 100 to the 140 it had last year, said Hong Kong-based Andrew Cohen, chief executive of the division that caters to those with more than US$30 million in investable assets. HSBC has expanded headcount in Singapore to 450 from 370 three years ago, according to Nancie Dupier, the bank's chief executive of private banking in south Asia.

Local competition

The global banks are competing for staff with local rivals. United Overseas Bank, Singapore's smallest bank by market value, has 40 relationship managers and is looking to add another 160 in five years, said Wilson Aw, the head of the division.

Asia's 3.3 million high-net-worth individuals had US$10.8 trillion in assets, compared with US$10.2 trillion accumulated by their 3.1 million counterparts in Europe, according to the report published in June by Capgemini and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management.

The number of millionaires in Asia's 10 major economies, excluding Japan, may more than double in the five years ending 2015, when half of them will be in China, according to a study by Julius Baer, compiled with CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. Chinese millionaires alone will hold US$8.76 trillion by 2015, the report forecasts.

Recruiters say private bankers need an apprenticeship because wealthy clients expect to be advised by someone with experience who can understand their goals.