StanChart to double private bank centres

Standard Chartered, a UK bank that makes most of its money in Asia, plans to double the number of its private banking units to 20 in the next four years to meet demand from the growing ranks of wealthy investors.

The bank plans to open 10 private banking centers in the next two months, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, and increase the number of its private bankers to 450 from 150 within three years, Peter Flavel, Standard Chartered's global head of private banking, told reporters today in Singapore.

The 3 million so-called high net worth individuals in Asia, the Middle East and Africa account for more than a third of the $33 trillion of global private banking assets, Flavel said. Standard Chartered's private banking unit manages wealth for customers with between $1 million and $50 million in assets.

In Asia, "70 percent of the high net-worth individuals have less than half of their assets with private banks,'' Flavel said. "We see a large underserved and underbanked market for private banking.''

Standard Chartered will open private banking centers in Hong Kong, Dubai, Mumbai, London, New Jersey, Beijing, Seoul, New Delhi and Shanghai in the next two months, and expand to Taiwan, Pakistan, South Korea, the Middle East and Southeast Asia in the next four years, Flavel said.

The lender restarted its private banking operations last September, after exiting the business in 1996 when it sold out to Swiss Bank Corp.

The wealth of individuals with at least $1 million of assets in Asia will rise by an average of 6.7 percent annually in the next four years to $10.6 trillion, Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch & Co. said in a report in June.

The income earned by high net worth individuals in Asia and the Middle East will reach $130 billion by 2010, up from $90 billion this year, Michael DeNoma, Standard Chartered's group executive director for consumer banking, said today.