Asian-descended UK citizens are helping to drive growth in the UK’s wealth management industry and an outstanding recent example is Azeem Ibrahim, who has been honoured by an award from UK bank Lloyds TSB. The 32-year-old, who has won the Lloyds TSB Jewel Award and is a member of the Sunday Times Scot’s Rich List, has an estimated personal fortune of $106 million. The success of the Glasgow-born Mr Ibrahim demonstrates the financial success of the Asian-descended community across Britain. The success is likely to provide an important market for the UK wealth management industry. “Estimates suggest there are over 200,000 Asian-owned firms in the UK, generating wealth at three times the national average,” according to a report by Lloyds TSB. Mr Ibrahim's rise has been meteoric, starting his own IT consultancy in 1997, which he ran until 2001 when he began a similar but larger operation in Europe. In 2004, Mr Ibrahim launched his own insurance corporation, a proprietary online premium-rating and policy-issuance system with real time quotes. In 2004, he turned to the banking sector. Mr Ibrahim founded a bank dedicated to serving commodities traders, called the European Commerce and Mercantile Bank. ECM Bank has developed its own financial trading software that optimised trading speeds. The bank has offices in Sweden and the Emirates Tower in Dubai. ECM’s Bank’s parent company, ECM Holdings, also includes ECM Asset Management, a Swedish-registered credit union building society, and ECM Clearing House, a Panamanian-registered financial clearing house licensed to trade in currencies, precious metals and commodities. ECM Holdings is also launching ECM Investment Fund, UK-regulated private equity hedge fund. If that was not enough, Mr Ibrahim is a former member of the UK’s elite Parachute Regiment.