DBS to expand UK wealth management unit
(12 April 2017 – Singapore) South-east Asia’s largest bank by assets, DBS will use a new UK licence to quadruple the size of its wealth management operation.
The bank recently obtained a UK securities licence and said it was now looking at adding staff in London as part of growth plans focused on the greater China market.
“It’s cheaper to get talent and set up base, and I believe in the long-term prospects of London,” said Tan Su Shan, head of wealth management at DBS, said.
“You can’t unwind the fact that it’s a great city.”
The focus is now changing to managing money in the UK, and DBS aims to add three more relationship managers in London this year and double the headcount again next year.
“Sterling getting cheaper has been an attractive draw to the Asian investor, and with Brexit, the UK may reach out to Asia more as a trading partner," Tan said.
DBS is Asia's fifth largest private bank, and had US$81.2 billion (A$108 billion) of assets under management for high net worth clients at the end of 2016.
Tan added that that the bank had seen outflows as a result of a tax amnesty programme in Indonesia that ended in March.
Indonesian officials say that money held in Singapore accounted for 57 percent of funds repatriated, and for about three-quarters of total assets declared under the amnesty, according to local media reports.
“We saw some outflows and saw some inflows too — we are onshore Indonesia too,” Tan said. “It’s made us lift our game onshore [in Indonesia]. They were getting quality clients that were sophisticated. We had to raise our game to meet these clients’ needs.”