Goldman's $1 billion bankers are benchmark in Asia's wealth race

The number of Credit Suisse Group AG client-facing executives in Asia fell 8 percent last year, according to the Swiss bank's annual report

For years, Asia’s biggest private banks have been on a hiring spree to keep pace with the ranks of newly minted millionaires. Now, they’re squeezing more out of their bankers.

Relationship managers who cater to wealthy clients in the region are running larger pools of money, with average assets run by each surging to an all-time high of $341 million last year in Asia, according to Asian Private Banker. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. topped the charts, with each private banker handling almost three times that amount.

The rising pools of wealth partly reflect the sheer volume of rich individuals being