Bank of Singapore Ltd (新加坡銀行), the private banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC, 華僑銀行), is looking to expand its family office business as the city-state rolls out the red carpet for wealthy investors.
“We are seeing increasing demand for families moving into the next generation to set a proper structure in place to manage family wealth,” chief executive officer Bahren Shaari said in an interview on Thursday. “Singapore is promoting that, to let families use it as a base to manage their investment activities globally.”
Bank of Singapore’s expansion would heighten competition with European firms such as UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, who have long dominated this space.
Photo: Bloomberg
Singapore family offices had average assets under management of US$857 million last year, nearly double the Asia-Pacific average of US$445 million, according to a survey of 262 such offices in a UBS/Campden report.
The expansion is to be spearheaded by Lee Woon Shiu (李文修), a managing director who currently looks after Bank of Singapore’s wealth planning and trust solutions, Shaari said.
While the bank does not plan to substantially increase the number of relationship managers it employs from about 400 now, it aims to double assets under management to US$500 million per banker over the next three to four years, he told Bloomberg TV on Friday.
Bank of Singapore also plans to open a new Taiwan unit to tap OCBC’s onshore presence.
The expanded family office business in Singapore would especially focus on rich families from China, Europe, and the Middle East, who are looking to invest in the Southeast Asian nation.
The Singapore government provides incentives including tax exemptions for funds managed by family offices for both offshore and onshore vehicles.
That offers the advantage that the offices would not pay Singapore tax on most of its investment gains, Shaari said.
Bank of Singapore’s assets under management rose to US$100 billion last month, after increasing an average 21 percent each year over the past five years.
The bank ranked No. 7 among Asia’s largest private banks in 2016, data compiled by Asian Private Banker showed.
To help expand its wealth and family office business in Europe, Bank of Singapore hired Anthony Adriano Simcic this month from HSBC Private Bank in Luxembourg. Simcic is to remain in the European city, which would be used as a base in addition to London.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SUBSIDIES: The nominee for commerce secretary indicated the Trump administration wants to put its stamp on the plan, but not unravel it entirely US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency in charge of a US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program declined to give it unqualified support, raising questions about the disbursement of funds to companies like Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). “I can’t say that I can honor something I haven’t read,” Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said of the binding CHIPS and Science Act awards in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “To the extent monies have been disbursed, I would commit to rigorously enforcing documents that have been signed by those companies to make sure we get
RSS