Stan-Chart to grow private banking assets

This article is more than 12 months old

Aug 15, 2019 06:00 am

HONG KONG: Standard Chartered is planning to grow its private banking assets by 50 per cent to about US$100 billion (S$139 billion) in three to five years and will be hiring dozens of bankers in Hong Kong and Singapore towards that goal, a senior executive of the lender said.

The moves show StanChart has big growth ambitions for the private banking unit that had until recently weighed on the lender's earnings, with its small size stoking speculation it would be put under review for possible divestment.

The lender will recruit 30 to 40 private bankers every year in the next two to three years to add to its roughly 300 existing relationship managers, and the bulk of the additions will be in Hong Kong and Singapore, StanChart's global head for private banking and wealth management Didier von Daeniken told Reuters.

"Our ambition is to see us cross the US$100 billion mark. That makes us meaningful internally for the group, that makes us a meaningful player in this landscape," Mr Daeniken said. - REUTERS