German bank DZ Bank International has become the latest player to join Singapore’s increasingly crowded private banking sector, with the ban...

German bank DZ Bank International has become the latest player to join Singapore’s increasingly crowded private banking sector, with the bank opening offices in the city state this week. DZ Bank International Singapore is a new unit of Germany’s fifth largest bank and is a joint venture between DZ’s private banking subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Zurich. The bank will target markets in China, India, Hong Kong and Indonesia, where “wealth creation is happening at a very advanced pace,” according to Wolfgang Kirsch, chairman of DZ’s board of managing directors. Singapore was chosen due to its triple-A investment rating, quality infrastructure, stable economy and government and high standards of governance in the financial sector, Mr Kirsch said. Singapore is proving increasingly popular as a regional centre for private banking, with Credit Suisse last week setting up a Singapore hub for its private and investment banking business outside of Zurich. UBS also recently opened a business school to help train the next generation of private bankers who will be needed to service the rapidly increasing wealth of the region. Merrill Lynch estimates that Asian wealth – currently at $7.6 trillion – will grow at nearly 7 per cent a year to reach $10.6 trillion by 2010. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, there are 103 foreign banks active in the city state, including 44 offshore banks. Total funds under management in Singapore have grown from around $280 billion in 2000 to more than $720 billion today – nearly four times the size of Singapore’s GDP.