Wirehouse sees potential in the region's fast growing high-net-worth market. Merrill Lynch plans to expand its wealth-management operations in Asia.

This insight, gleaned by Bloomberg in an interview with Merrill's Singapore-based Pacific Rim president Jason Brand last week, echoes sentiments expressed by Morgan Stanley's co-president James Gorman at a UBS-sponsored financial-services conference last week.

Especially India

"Our eyes are looking to grow in Asia, not to shrink," Brand told the news service. "Wealth management is one area we've identified for growth."

Financial assets held by high-net-worth individuals and families in the Asian-Pacific region stands to increase to around $12.7 trillion by 2011, according to the 2007 World Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill.

In addition to opening a wealth-management office in India -- a market that some foreign wealth managers see as a better bet than China -- Merrill plans to hire "hundreds" of wealth-management personnel in the region in addition to putting more corporate financiers and traders on the ground in Asia.

In another sign of its commitment to the region, Brand says that Merrill's job cuts -- the wirehouse pledged to hive off 3,000 last month -- has left Asia comparatively untouched. -FWR

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