Asia will overtake established Western wealth management markets in terms of ultra high net worth population growth, highlighting just why major banks such as HSBC are shifting to the East, according to a new report from Ledbury Research that adds to other reports suggesting this trend.

For the first time at the end of 2009, Asia became home to more centamillionaires – those people with $100 million or more in wealth – than either Europe or North America, UK-based Ledbury Research said.

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“Even as the number of centamillionaires in North America bounces back 17 per cent to 14,000 at the end of 2010, this high growth is predominantly an adjustment to the last few years’ economic turmoil,” the report said.

The Asian centamillionaire population will continue to pull away from their Western peers in 2011, reaching 16,000 compared to 14,000 in North America and 12,000 in Europe, the report continued.

Reports from other organisations, such as Scorpio Partnership and Merrill Lynch Capgemini, have pointed to the fact that Asia is growing in relative importance and sophistication as a wealth management market. China has recently overtaken Japan as the world's second biggest economy.

HSBC – as befits a bank with the full name of Hong Kong Shanghai Bank – has announced that Chris Meares, chief executive of global private banking at HSBC, will move out to Hong Kong as part of a reshuffle of the division's management, though the business will remain headquartered in London. The move follows that of HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan at the start of the year.

Western banks, such as Switzerland’s Julius Baer and the UK’s Royal Bank of Scotland, have been ramping up their Asia businesses to capture the growth in the number of high net worth clients.

The regional figures published by Ledbury are part of country-specific reports covering the wealthy in each of 15 key wealth countries: Brazil; China; France; Germany; Hong Kong; India; Italy; Japan; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Singapore; Switzerland; UAE, UK and US.

Among other highlights from the new data, is that the recession has had a more lasting impact on the wealthiest in Europe than those in North America, as, for the first time, in 2009 the number of millionaires in North America overtook those across Europe. Though the number of European millionaires will grow by the end of 2010 to 4.8 million, it will only grow by 1 per cent, compared to 6 per cent in North America.

Ledbury finds that the quickest growth in millionaires will come from South and Central America, where the millionaire population will expand by 28 per cent to over 800,000 by the end of 2010.

At the end of 2009, European centamillionaires dropped from 15,000 to 12,000 – a level at which it is forecast to remain for 2010 and 2011.