Bank of Singapore, the private bank, is stepping up efforts to further expand its discretionary financial advisory services as client appetites become more sophisticated and diversified, a report says.

Bank of Singapore, the private banking arm of Singapore-based OCBC Group, is stepping up efforts to further expand its discretionary financial advisory services as client appetites become more sophisticated and diversified, the South China Morning Post reports.

In an interview with the publication, chief executive Renato de Guzman said that the demand for discretionary services has increased as more wealthy Asians turn to private banks to manage their assets. The bank's goal is to double its assets under management, currently at $45 billion, to $80 billion by 2016. It also plans to give more attention to RMB investing.

Under the private banking model, "discretionary" applies when the investment decisions are made by the bank itself and where fees are computed as a percentage of the AuM. This is compared to "advisory" where the decisions rest on the client and fees are collected per transaction. 

"[Bank of Singapore] has always had a dedicated team that looks at asset allocation for the discretionary portfolio management service. The DPM team, headed by Hou Wey Fook, chief investment officer, works closely with our relationship managers to market DPM services to clients," said a spokesperson for the company when contacted by WealthBriefingAsia.

A study released by McKinsey & Co in June 2013 reveals that Asian private banking clients have less than 5 per cent of their wealth in discretionary mandates, compared to the Western Europeans, who have over 20 per cent in similar accounts.