Deutsche to step up private banking in South Asia

Reuters: Deutsche Bank’s private banking arm plans to increase the number of private bankers targeting rich South Asian clients by 40 percent in the next three years as part of a plan to double assets under management, a senior banker said on Monday.

Many rich Indian families are spread across several countries and Deutsche is keen to tap part of their wealth held in cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, said Ajay Jaiswal, who heads the Asian operations of the Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management unit that serves the South Asian Diaspora.

Currently, Deutsche has 60 people focusing on rich clients of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and other South Asian origins, he said at the Reuters Global Private Banking Summit.

Jaiswal said Deutsche also sees opportunities from wealth transfers from one generation to another.

“A lot of people are not aware that 85 percent of the wealth in Asia is going to change hands to the next generation in the next 15 years,” he said.

“Asia is on the cusp of that huge transfer right now and that really requires a different kind of skill set,” he said at the Reuters Summit held at the Thomson Reuters office in Singapore.

Deutsche said earlier this year it expects to double its 29 billion euros ($35 billion) Asian private wealth portfolio in three years as it targets rich entrepreneurs in the growing economies of China, India and Indonesia.

Non-resident Indians own more than $1 trillion in assets, about half of it in gold, real estate and art, according to estimates by the Confederation of Indian Industry and India’s Ministry of Finance.