Asia's big private banks boost assets under management to record

SINGAPORE (April 11): Asia’s biggest private banks boosted their assets under management to a record last year, rebounding from a 2015 contraction, amid acquisitions that swelled some firms’ portfolio holdings.

Assets managed by the region’s top 20 private banks climbed by 6.1% to US$1.55 trillion ($2.18 trillion) in 2016 from a year earlier, according to an Asian Private Banker report released Tuesday. The amount contracted 4.7% in 2015 as the region’s economic growth slowed and mounting regulatory pressure forced banks to reject some clients.

The 2016 figure was bolstered by Bank of Singapore’s purchase of Barclays Plc’s wealth-management units in Singapore and Hong Kong and Union Bancaire Privee’s acquisition of Coutts International. Private banks have been seeking to expand in the Asia-Pacific region, where individual wealth surpassed that of North America for the first time in 2015, according to a report by Cap Gemini SA.

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