Dutch bank ABN Amro has told Reuters in Singapore that the planned merger of its private banking arm with Belgium's Fortis would significantly boost assets and make the merged unit the sixth-biggest private bank in Asia. Fortis seems likely to acquire the global asset management and private banking units of ABN Amro if the Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium that has made the highest bid to buy ABN Amro Bank, at €70 billion ($98.56 billion) goes ahead. Barend Janssens, head of ABN Amro's private banking arm for Asia, told Reuters that if the acquisition goes ahead the combined ABN-Fortis unit would have $30 billion in private banking assets for Asian and Middle Eastern clients, 50 per cent ahead of the $20 billion or so that ABN Amro private bank currently manages for its clients in the region. Mr Janssens said he expects that the Asian private banking industry could sustain 13-18 per cent growth in 2008 because the thriving domestic economies of China and India will create more wealth and reduce reliance on exports to the US. He also said the bank is keen to build its China private banking business, which will start operations at the end of the year with a branch in Shanghai. "We have the advantage of having the preferred bank there which caters to the wealth class below the private bank, $100,000 to $1 million. That team has already worked for three years focusing on foreign currency products." But he warned that “While the market is going to be very big, the product development is very young and the pool of bankers is small," so that ABN AMRO plans to train China-focused bankers by using teams of specialists based in Hong Kong or Singapore.